EXCLUSIVE: Corey Stoll (Billions) has come aboard for a role in the live-action Matchbox film from Apple Original Films, starring John Cena, Deadline has learned.
All character details remain under wraps, as does the film’s plot. Inspired by Mattel‘s die-cast toy vehicle line of the same name, the project hails from Skydance and Mattel Films. Stoll is part of an expanding cast that also includes Jessica Biel, Sam Richardson, Teyonah Parris, Arturo Castro and Danai Gurira.
Sam Hargrave (Extraction franchise) is directing Matchbox from a script by David Coggeshall (The Family Plan) and Jonathan Tropper (upcoming Your Friends and Neighbors). Producers include Skydance’s David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Don Granger, and Robbie Brenner for Mattel Films, along with Jules Daly.
The Matchbox brand was invented in 1953 by automotive enthusiast Jack Odell to solve a challenge for his daughter, who was allowed to take a toy to school only if it was small enough to fit in a matchbox. When his daughter’s school friends, too, began clamoring for a “matchbox car,” an enduring brand was born. The high standards of authenticity for Matchbox die-cast cars have driven the brand for over 70 years and generations of fans. Today, two Matchbox cars are sold every second somewhere around the world.
Matchbox is part of a slate of Apple films from Skydance that also includes genre-bender The Gorge starring Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy; Guy Ritchie’s Fountain of Youth, starring Natalie Portman and John Krasinski; action-adventure May Day with Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh; and McG’s Way of the Warrior Kid, produced by and starring Chris Pratt.
Known for roles in Showtime’s Billions, the Ant-Man films, House of Cards and much more, Stoll most recently wrapped opposite Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks on The Better Sister, a new thriller series for Prime Video, based on the novel by Alafair Burke. Receiving a Tony Award nomination last season for his role opposite Sarah Paulson in Brandon Jacob-Jenkins’s Appropriate on Broadway, the actor is represented by UTA, Suskin/Karshan Management, and SRDA Law.
