30WEST announced today that Finn Wolfhard (It, Ghostbusters: Afterlife) and Billy Bryk (When You Finish Saving the World) will direct Hell of a Summer, which is based on their original script. Wolfhard, Bryk, and Fred Hechinger (“The White Lotus,” The Woman in the Window) will star in the contemporary horror-comedy, with plot details being kept under wraps. Hechinger, Aggregate Films’ Jason Bateman, Michael Costigan, and Parts and Labor’s Jay Van Hoy will produce the film, with principal photography beginning this month in Ontario, Canada. 30WEST is fully financing, executive producing the film and co-representing the worldwide rights alongside CAA Media Finance.
Wolfhard said: “I am so excited to be co-directing my first feature film. I get the chance to work with an incredible cast and crew, and to work with a company like 30WEST and Aggregate is a real dream.”
Wolfhard is best known for his starring roles as Mike Wheeler in the critically acclaimed Netflix Original Series Stranger Things and Richie Tozier in New Line Cinema’s It and It: Chapter Two, which together have grossed over $1.2 billion at the box office. He recently starred in Jason Reitman’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife for Columbia Pictures. Releasing later this year, Wolfhard will co-star alongside Oscar winner Julianne Moore in the A24 comedy-drama feature When You Finish Saving the World, written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg and produced by Emma Stone. He lends his voice to the all-star cast in Oscar winner Guillermo del Toro’s stop-motion animated musical film Pinocchio, which will premiere on Netflix. Lastly, he completed production on the A24 fantasy epic film The Legend of Ochi, opposite Willem Dafoe, which is in post-production.
In 2020, Wolfhard made his directorial debut with his first short film Night Shifts. The short was accepted into the Fantasia Film Festival, where it received the Silver Audience Award for ‘Best Canadian Short.” It was also accepted to both the Calgary International Film Festival and The Barcelona International Short Film Festival and screened at the prestigious TIFF Next Wave Film Festival.
Bryk is an actor and producer who appeared alongside Wolfhard in Ghostbusters: Afterlife and currently in Jesse Eisenberg’s When You Finish Saving the World for A24 which opened this year's Critics' Week section at the Cannes Film Festival.
Hechinger can next be seen in Scott Cooper’s The Pale Blue Eye starring Christian Bale for Netflix, Butcher’s Crossing with Nicolas Cage, and J.C. Chandor’s Kraven the Hunter alongside Russell Crowe and Ariana DeBose. His film credits include Joe Wright’s The Woman in the Window for Netflix, Paul Greengrass’ News of the World for Universal Pictures and Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade for A24. Television credits include the hit HBO series “The White Lotus” and “Pam & Tommy” for Hulu.