Charlie Plummer, Stephen Graham, Toni Collette, Anthony Hopkins sign to star in Morten Tyldum’s ‘Ibelin’

Vendôme Pictures and Pathé are reuniting after their Oscar-winning Coda on Ibelin that will see Morten Tyldum direct Charlie Plummer, Stephen Graham, Toni Collette, Isabela Merced, Maisy Stella, and Anthony Hopkins.

The real-life story gets the narrative treatment after it premiered as a documentary at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

Ibelin centres on Mats Steen, a young man with a degenerative muscular disease who, unbeknownst to his family, inhabits an inspiring and beloved alter ego in the World Of Warcraft online video game.

Principal photography will take place in Europe in spring/summer 2026. Black Bear represents international sales and will commence talks at the AFM next week, with CAA Media Finance representing US rights.

Bafta nominee Ilaria Bernardini wrote the screenplay, with revisions by Hossein Amini, based on the blog “Musings Of Life” by Steen, who died in 2014, aged 25. 

Vendôme Pictures’ Philippe Rousselet and Fabrice Gianfermi are producing alongside Jérôme Seydoux at Pathé and Tyldum and Guri Neby for Neby-Tyldum AS. Vendôme and Pathé are financing the film.

The story originally appeared as Benjamin Ree’s Norwegian documentary The Remarkable Life Of Ibelin, which Netflix acquired after the world premiere in Park City last year.

“Ibelin is a sensational story which will be told by a remarkable group of storytellers, first and foremost, Morten, who has a rare ability to evoke emotions with films like The Imitation Game and epics such as Passengers and Silo,” Rousselet said. “We have assembled a formidable cast, and with our frequent collaborators at Pathé and the team at Black Bear, are confident this will be a film that will resonate with buyers and audiences everywhere.”

Tyldum has directed films including The Imitation Game and Headhunters.

Plummer most recently starred in Lionsgate’s The Long Walk and his credits include All The Money In The World and The Return. Graham earned three Emmys for the Netflix limited series Adolescence and has also starred in Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, The Irishman, Rocketman, and the Venom and Pirates Of The Caribbean franchises.

Collette currently stars in Netflix series Wayward, and has film credits including Hereditary, Knives Out, Little Miss Sunshine, Muriel’s Wedding and The Sixth Sense.

Hopkins, the Oscar-winning star The Silence Of The Lambs and The Father ,has also starred in films including The Two Popes, Nixon, The Remains Of The Day and the Thor films.

Merced stars in the HBO Max series The Last Of Us, Warner Bros/DC’s Superman, and Alien: Romulus. Stella broke out in Amazon MGM’s My Old Ass and recently headlined Row K’s TIFF acquisition Poetic License.

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