Willem Dafoe and Emily Watson starring in The Legend of Ochi

Willem Dafoe and Emily Watson are to lead the cast of the fantasy film 'The Legend of Ochi'.

The movie will also feature Finn Wolfhard and Helena Zengel and will be directed by Isaiah Saxon – who has previously helmed music videos for the likes of Kanye West and Bjork.

'The Legend of Ochi' is based on Saxon's original characters and screenplay and follows a young girl (Zengel) who runs away from home and learns to communicate with an elusive animal species known as Ochi.

The flick will include an original score by composer Dave Longstreth, a frequent collaborator of Saxon's animation and film studio Encyclopedia Pictura.

The film will be produced by Saxon and Encyclopedia Pictura along with Traci Carlson, Richard Peete and Jonathan Wang.

Anthony and Joe Russo are executive producing with Mike Larocca and Angela Russo-Otstot.

Willem previously starred in 'The Lighthouse' with Robert Pattinson and described filming as a "strange" experience as they spent every day of the 32-day shoot working on the project but didn't know anything about each other but their characters.

The 66-year-old actor said: "The crazy thing is we were basically only with each other in the scene. So I knew nothing outside of the world that we were in.

"This wasn't like a rigid rule to do some sort of method thing, to always stay in character.

"It was a practical thing, in that the conditions were so difficult, usually between scenes we'd have to retreat to get dry, to get stay healthy, to practise things.

"It was strange because I've never been in that situation. We do a whole film with one other actor and you barely know the guy outside of the roles that you're playing."