AFM: Evan Peters Signs Up for Bart Layton’s ‘American Animals’

American Horror Story breakout Evan Peters is set to star in American Animals, the upcoming heist film from writer-director Bart Layton.

Co-financed and developed by Film4 and AI Film, the movie will tell the unbelievable but mostly true story of four young men who mistook their lives for a movie and attempted one of the most audacious heists in U.S. history.

American Animals is being produced by Katherine Butler, Dimitri Doganis, Derrin Schlesinger and Mary Jane Skalski, and executive produced by Aviv Giladi and Len Blavatnik via the AI Film banner; David Kosse; Film4’s Sam Lavender and Daniel Battsek; and Tory Metzger via the Lava Bear Films banner.

Principal photography on project film is slated to begin in early 2017. Sierra/Affinity is looking after international sales at this year’s AFM. UTA is handling the U.S. sale of the movie.

Layton’s acclaimed 2012 film The Imposter became one of the most successful documentaries at the U.K. box office, winning a number of awards, including a BAFTA, and was also shortlisted for an Academy Award for best documentary.

Peters is repped by CAA. Layton is repped by UTA and United Agents in the U.K.