‘Helen’s Dead’: Annabelle Dexter-Jones, Emile Hirsch, Dylan Gelula, Oliver Cooper & Tyrese Gibson Board Murder Mystery Pic From Newly Formed Stoked Film Group

Matt Grobar
·3 min read
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EXCLUSIVE: Annabelle Dexter-Jones (Succession, Cecile on the Phone), Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild, The Autopsy of Jane Doe), Dylan Gelula (Shameless, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), Oliver Cooper (Red Oaks, Mindhunter) and Tyrese Gibson (Fast & Furious franchise) have signed on to star in Helen’s Dead, a murder mystery film from director K. Asher Levin (Slayers, Dig) and the newly formed genre production company Stoked Film Group, which will enter production in Santa Fe, NM this month.

The film centers on aimless twenty-something Addie (Gelula), who discovers that her boyfriend Adam (Hirsch) is sleeping with her cousin Helen. She then shows up at a dinner party to confront the both of them, only to discover Helen that is dead and everybody is a suspect. From “canceled” influencer Leila (Dexter-Jones), to mysterious hipster Garrett (Cooper) and an ex-con named Henry (Gibson), Addie must make it through a night of upwardly mobile entitlement and an absurdly shocking level of millennial apathy.

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Amy Brown Carver penned the script, which is based on a story she wrote with Levin. The latter is also producing alongside Stoked Film Group partners Jarnell Stokes and Daniel Cummings, Robert Dean, Ford Corbett, Scott McFarland, and Todd Lundbohm of 828 Media Capital. Stokes is exec producing alongside BondIt Media Capital’s Grady Craig, Matthew Helderman and Luke Taylor, with 13 Films handling sales.

“This film is carefully crafted to have a diverse range of multi-talented actors play off each other and keep the viewers guessing from beginning to end. It’s a perfect blend of suspense, dark satire, and action,” said Levin. “Annabelle, Emile, Dylan, and Tyrese bring such a captivating dynamic and I couldn’t be happier with the overall cast.”

“When you combine an experienced crew base with one of the best film incentives in the country, it’s easy to see why New Mexico is such a production hotspot,” said Cummings. “I can’t imagine filming Helen’s Dead anywhere else.”

Stoked Film Group was launched by Stokes, Levin and Cummings in October of this year and has already completed production alongside BondIt Media Capital on the films Slayers and Dig. It’s currently developing features including Rager and Meat Locker, as well as a number of TV projects, with Craig, Helderman and Taylor of BondIt.

828 Media Capital is a full-service film finance and production company, whose recent films include The Last Son, starring Sam Worthington, Colson Baker, Thomas Jane, and Heather Graham; Camille Delmarre’s action film Assassin Club, starring Henry Golding, Noomi Rapace, and Sam Neil; Ryûhei Kitamura’s The Price We Pay, starring Hirsch and Stephen Dorff; the Gothic horror Raven’s Hollow, starring William Moseley, Melanie Zanetti, Kate Dickie, and David Hayman; WWII submarine pic Operation Seawolf, starring Dolph Lundgren and Frank Grillo; The Requin, starring Alicia Silverstone and James Tupper; and SXSW Grand Jury Prize winner The Fallout, starring Jenna Ortega, Maddie Ziegler, Shailene Woodley, and Julie Bowen.

Dexter-Jones is represented by Gersh, Authentic Talent and Literary Management and Gang Tyre; Hirsch by UTA; Gelula by CAA and Mark Morikawa at MGMT; Cooper by APA and Calvary Media; Gibson by APA and Pearlman & Tishbi.

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