EXCLUSIVE: Signature Entertainment has acquired UK & Irish rights to Asa Butterfield thriller Our Hero, Balthazar from Visit Films.

Butterfield (Sex Education), stars with Jaeden Martell (Knives Out), Jennifer Ehle (The King’s Speech), Noah Centineo (To All The Boys…) and Chris Bauer (Thunderbolts).

Producers include Oscar Boyson (Uncut Gems), Ricky Camilleri, David Duque Estrada (Reality), Alex Hughes (How to Blow up a Pipeline), Jaeden Martell and Jon Wroblewski (Osiris).

Premiering at Tribeca last year, Our Hero, Balthazar is written and directed by Oscar Boyson in his directorial debut. The film is also written by Ricky Camilleri.

The dark satire follows “Balthazar (Martell), a wealthy New York teenager who, eager to impress his crush at school, follows an online troll (Butterfield) to Texas, convinced that he can stop an act of extreme violence. What begins as a misguided hero’s journey evolves into a complex encounter between two young men from vastly different worlds in divided America.”

The deal was negotiated between Signature Entertainment’s Acquisitions & Development Executive, Max Hart and Visit Films’ President, Ryan Kampe.

Signature’s Max Hart said: “Our Hero, Balthazar is a sharp, darkly comic and provocative thriller – a frenetic and prescient portrait of Gen Z alienation that grips from start to finish with standout performances and relentless momentum. We can’t wait to bring the film to audiences in the UK & Ireland.”

Director Oscar Boyson added: “We couldn’t be happier that Signature Entertainment is bringing Our Hero, Balthazar to movies fans in the UK. We made this movie for the audience, and we know that with Signature we’ll be able to reach the widest number of people and share the same experience with them that moviegoers have been responding so wildly to here in the US.”