EXCLUSIVE: Nicholas Galitzine (The Idea of You) and Bill Skarsgård (Nosferatu) are set to star in Mosquito Bowl, the first new film falling under Peter Berg‘s recently renewed deal with Netflix, on which we were first to report, sources tell Deadline.
Details as to the roles to be played by the two are under wraps. Based on Buzz Bissinger’s New York Times bestseller The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II, the film is set after the attack on Pearl Harbor, when four of America’s top college football stars set their fame aside to enlist in the Marines. As they prepare for the brutal invasion of Okinawa, they play in a legendary game featuring some of the greatest players in history – a game that, for many, will be the last they ever play.
Berg penned the adaptation with Mark L. Smith. Producers on the project include Berg for Film 44, Brian Grazer for Imagine Entertainment, and Alex Gayner. Ezra Emanuel is serving as exec producer.
Film 44 came to renew its live-action creative partnership with Netflix following the success of Berg’s limited series American Primeval, which spent four weeks in Netflix’s Global Top 10 TV (English) and racked up 35.1 million views following its debut in January. Previously, Film 44’s Netflix limited series Painkiller, directed by Berg, spent five weeks in the Global Top 10 TV List (English), garnering 29.1M views.
Also noteworthy is Mosquito Bowl‘s reteam of Berg and Imagine’s Grazer, who worked on the hit football pic Friday Night Lights and the series take that followed and are currently hatching a reboot.
Since his star-making run with projects including Purple Hearts, The Idea of You opposite Anne Hathaway and Mary & George opposite Julianne Moore, Galitzine has been tapped to lead Amazon’s new take on Masters of the Universe, also signing on to the studio’s Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Movie, and the starry indie 100 Nights of Hero. Upcoming, he’ll also be heard lending his voice to animated feature Wings of Freedom. He’s repped by the UK’s Curtis Brown Group, WME, Anonymous Content, Gang, Tyre, Ramer, and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole.
Known for his transformational turns, Skarsgård most recently put his abilities on display in Robert Eggers’ Oscar-nominated Nosferatu, which came in as Focus Features’ second highest-grossing film ever at the domestic box office, upon its Christmas Day debut. Currently, the actor can be seen starring opposite Anthony Hopkins in Locked, the new thriller from director David Yarovesky. Upcoming, he has Dead Man’s Wire from Gus Van Sant, Michael Sarnoski’s The Death of Robin Hood opposite Hugh Jackman, and IT: Welcome to Derry, where he reprises his breakout role as Pennywise the Clown. He is represented by WME, Magnolia Entertainment, Agentfirman Planthaber/Kildén/Mandic in Sweden, and Hirsch Wallerstein Hayum.
