Emma Stone is set to follow-up her Academy Award winning turn in Poor Things by teaming up with her The Curse co-star Nathan Fielder to headline A24’s chess drama Checkmate.
According to The Hollywood Reporter A24 fought off serious competition from streamers and studios to secure the rights to Checkmate, which is based on a book proposal by Ben Mezrich, whose novels were adapted into films such The Social Network and Dumb Money.
Stone’s The Curse co-star Nathan Fielder is set to direct, while she will also act as producer alongside her husband and partner Dave McCary through the duo’s Fruit Tree banner.
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Mezrich’s book will focus on the biggest scandal in the history of chess; the generational battle between Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen and the rising star bad boy of chess, Hans Niemann. The latter was accused of cheating in one of the pair’s matches, which became a huge scandal in the world of chess and beyond. Per THR’s story, the plot is not only about the rivalry and the scandal, but the the rise of a billion-dollar chess industry and the changing nature of the game.
The project was such a hot property that A24, fresh off the record-breaking success of Alex Garland’s Civil War ($90M WW and counting), offered a seven-figure sum and set a thirty minute deadline for Checkmate.
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