An all-star cast has been assembled for Isaiah Saxon’s feature debut, The Legend of Ochi. Academy-Award Nominee Willem Dafoe (The Lighthouse, Aquaman), Academy-Award nominee Emily Watson (Everest) and Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things), and young Golden Globe Nominee, lead actress Helena Zengel (News Of The World, System Crasher) will topline the new fantasy epic which A24 will finance and handle on worldwide releasing.
Based on Saxon’s own original characters, world and screenplay, The Legend of Ochi follows a young girl (Zengel) who runs away from home and learns to communicate with an elusive animal species known as OCHI. The film will include an original score by composer and Dirty Projectors founder Dave Longstreth, a frequent collaborator of Encyclopedia Pictura, of which Saxon is also co-founder and shares numerous music video and project directing credits for artists such as Björk, Panda Bear, Dirty Projectors, Kanye West, and Grizzly Bear.
Encyclopedia Pictura are currently developing an animated series at Apple. Their animated pilot for Cartoon Network, DIY, is based on the online community they co-founded, DIY.org, a platform for kids to learn practical skills.
Saxon is producing The Legend Of Ochi via his Encyclopedia Pictura banner, next to Traci Carlson and Richard Peete of Neighborhood Watch (Blue Ruin, Super Dark Times), and Jonathan Wang with Year of the Rat. The Russo Brothers, Mike Larocca and Angela Russo-Otstot from AGBO (Extraction, upcoming The Gray Man and Electric State) are also attached as executive producers, along with Louise Lovegrove and Alex Plapinger.
Saxon is repped by Verve, 2AM and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush, Kaller & Gellman L.L.P.
Dafoe’s upcoming projects include Guillermo Del Toro’s Nightmare Alley and Robert Eggers’ The Northman. He recently wrapped production on Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things which is slated to release next fall. Dafoe is represented by CAA and Circle of Confusion
Zengel is represented by CAA and Artists Partnership.
Watson is represented by UTA, Independent Talent in the UK, and Schreck Rose Dapello Adams Berlin & Dunham LLP.
Wolfhard, can be seen next starring in the highly anticipated feature Ghostbusters: Afterlife, as well as season four of Stranger Things on Netflix next summer, will also get to join Oscar winner Julianne Moore in director Jesse Eisenberg’s A24 comedy-drama feature When You Finish Saving The World, as well as Guillermo del Toro for his stop-motion animated musical incarnation of Pinocchio. The actor is repped by CAA, Velocity Entertainment Partners and Jackoway Austen.
AGBO is also currently working with A24 and producer Jonathan Wang on the 2022 adventure sci-fi comedy, Everything Everywhere All at Once, starring Michelle Yeoh and directed by filmmaker duo DANIELS (Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert).