Entertainment One (eOne) and producers MACRO Film Studios recently announced that Freaky Tales, the Oakland-centered dramatic thriller written and directed by Captain Marvel’s Ryan Fleck & Anna Boden, has set a cast starring The Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal, Emmy Award winner Ben Mendelsohn, and Top Gun: Maverick’s Jay Ellis.
The film, financed by eOne and produced by eOne and MACRO Film Studios, began principal photography on November 14th and will also feature a cast including Jack Champion (AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER, SCREAM 6), Angus Cloud (Euphoria), Dominique Thorne (BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER), Normani (The Proud Family), and Atypical’s Keir Gilchrist and Michelle Farrah Huang, as well as a collection of notable Oakland natives.
eOne’s Jillian Share, Jen Gorton, and Chanel Vidal will oversee the film’s production with Share and Gorton executive producing. MACRO Film Studios’ Jelani Johnson and Poppy Hanks will serve as producers and Charles D. King and James F. Lopez as executive producers. Also executive producing are Too Short and his manager David Weintraub, while Grammy-winning Oakland native Raphael Saadiq is overseeing the film’s music.
Set in Oakland in 1987, Freaky Tales is a wholly original, immersive film inspired by Ryan’s experience growing up in the bay. The film is comprised of four interconnected stories each featuring distinct characters, real-life locations, and noteworthy historical events (some real, some imagined).
In addition to playing the title character in Disney’s 14-Emmy-winning The Mandalorian, Chilean-born Pascal is known for his roles in smash hits like HBO’s Game of Thrones and Netflix’s Narcos. On the film side, he starred with Matt Damon in The Great Wall and in this summer’s The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent.
Mendelsohn took an Emmy for his work on the Netflix drama Bloodline. The same year, he played the main villain in the Academy Award-nominated box office smash Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. He also starred in Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award-nominated Ready Player One and has been in such critical darlings as Killing Them Softly and Place Beyond The Pines.
Ellis recently starred opposite Tom Cruise in the blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick, which is nearing $1.5 billion at the global box office. He will next be seen opposite Amazon Studio’s Somebody I Used To Know. On the television side, he starred for five seasons in HBO’s Emmy-winning Insecure, FX’s Emmy-nominated limited series Mrs. America and BET’s The Game.
Thorne stars in the Marvel sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, being introduced as RiRi Williams, a smart, super cool 19-year-old MIT student. She will go on to anchor the titular Ironheart series for Marvel & Disney. Thorne made her feature film debut in Academy Award-winning writer/director Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk, as well as Academy Award-nominated feature Judas And The Black Messiah.
Pascal is represented by CAA. Mendelsohn is represented by WME. Fleck and Boden are represented by WME and Entertainment 360. Ellis is represented by UTA and Rise Management.