EXCLUSIVE: Harry Melling (Wolf Hall) is set to star opposite Barry Keoghan and Riley Keough in Butterfly Jam, the new drama marking the English-language debut of Cannes prize-winner Kantemir Balagov (Beanpole), sources tell Deadline.
Character details are under wraps. Set against the backdrop of New Jersey’s Circassian community, the film revolves around a teenager whose father and aunt run a struggling diner specializing in Circassian cuisine. When he’s not helping out in the restaurant, the boy is training to become a professional wrestler. After one of his father’s misguided schemes goes wrong, he is forced to take on board his father’s failings as he finds himself confronted with a violence that will force him to grow up faster than he would like.
The project hails from Alexander Rodnyansky’s AR Content, which is financing, as well as Emilia Pérez producer Pascal Caucheteux’s Why Not Productions, and Goodfellas, which is handling sales.
Currently co-starring in Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light (PBS/Masterpiece), Melling has recently been seen playing Edgar Allan Poe in Scott Cooper’s The Pale Blue Eye, with additional roles in Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, the Coen Brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, and Netflix’s Emmy winner The Queen’s Gambit.
Next up, the British actor will be seen starring opposite Alexander Skarsgård in Harry Lighton’s buzzed feature debut, Pillion, which will be released by A24 in the U.S. and Cornerstone internationally. He is repped by Curtis Brown Group in the UK and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman.
