EXCLUSIVE: War Witch and Two Lovers And A Bear director Kim Nguyen is prepping his follow-up, The Hummingbird Project, with Jesse Eisenberg and Alexander Skarsgard set to star in the high-speed drama. Written by Nguyen and produced by Pierre Even of Item 7 in Montreal, the project is exec produced by Brian Kavanaugh-Jones (Loving) and Fred Berger (La La Land) of Automatik. Production is slated to begin in Montreal in October with HanWay handling international sales. CAA is on domestic.

Described as a modern epic, the pic centers on cousins from New York, Vincent and Anton, who are players in the high-stakes game of High Frequency Trading, where winning is measured in nanoseconds. Their dream is to build a fiber-optic cable straight between Kansas and New Jersey, making them millions. But nothing is straightforward for this flawed pair. Anton is the brains, Vincent is the hustler, and together they push each other and everyone around them to the breaking point. Breathing down their necks is their old boss Paul Raulston, a psychopathic trader who will stop at nothing to see them fail.

Eisenberg, who starred in last year’s Now You See Me 2 and Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice, led last year’s Cannes opening film, Café Society. Upcoming, he is teaming with J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Prods for The Market, a half-hour single-camera comedy series, which he is writing and will be starring in and directing. He also reprises his Lex Luthor role in Justice League later this year.

Skarsgard, who recently appeared in the HBO limited series Big Little Lies, will next be seen starring in Duncan Jones’ Mute opposite Paul Rudd and Justin Theroux. He also recently wrapped production on The Aftermath starring opposite Keira Knightley, and Jeremy Saulnier’s Hold The Dark.

Nguyen was Oscar nominated for 2012’s War Witch; his Two Lovers And A Bear ran in Directors’ Fortnight last year — he has previously been a Deadline Director to Watch. He says The Hummingbird Project is at its core “an adventure with heart and soul. When I started writing the story I immediately thought that it had a really, really cool plot, and that there was a genuine purpose for bringing it to the screen. Jesse and Alexander are the ideal duo for this project, I couldn’t be more thrilled.”

Nguyen, Eisenberg and Skarsgard are all repped by CAA. Eisenberg is also represented by Felker, Toczek, Suddleson & Abramson. Skarsgård is also represented by Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush & Kaller.