‘After The Hunt’ By Luca Guadagino.
“After The Hunt” is a dramatic thriller penned by debut screenwriter Nora Garrett. The buzzy project was at Imagine Entertainment, before landing at Amazon MGM Studios. Luca Guadagino coming off of “Challengers”, had signed on board to direct. Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield will star in the lead. Garrett penned the script, and Allan Mandelbaum and Brian Grazer will produce for Imagine Entertainment.
After landing Guadagino as director, several A-list actress wanted to star in the lead role before the studio finally landed Julia Roberts (Erin Brockovich, Ocean’s 11) in March 2024. In May Andrew Garfield (Amazing Spider-Man, The Social Network) and Ayo Edebiri (The Bear) joined the cast. Garfield desired to work with Guadagino since the release of 2009’s “I Am Love”. In June, Michael Stuhlbarg (Call Me By Your Name) and Chloe Sevigny (American Psycho, Zodiac) joined the cast. Lio Mehiel, Thaddea Graham, Will Price, Christine Dye and Burgess Byrd were added in July to round out the cast.
Premise: The film is an intense dramatic thriller about a college professor (Roberts) who finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads when a star pupil levels an accusation against one of her colleagues and a dark secret from her own past threatens to come to light.
Allan Mandelbaum brought the script into Imagine and worked with CAA to get it to top talents like Guadagino and Roberts.
Since landing at Imagine Entertainment, which has been developing it for some, the spec script has been one of the most talked-about scripts since the dual strikes ended. That led to a number of top-tier directors trying to get a meeting with Imagine co-founder Brian Grazer to get the job. Guadagino locked up the directing gig after impressing Grazer with his take during a meeting before the Oscars.
Next up was locking in the talent, and while there are number of great roles in the script, the older professor role had every top actress lining up, with Roberts —fresh off another hit with Netflix’s “Leave The World Behind”— at the top of the list. Once Roberts gave her commitment, the package became red hot with several suitors chasing. but given the relationship Amazon MGM has with Guadagino, whose film “Challengers” bowed out for the studio, it made an aggressive bid that closed the deal.
The package is another example of how studios have been higher on specs and big packages since the dual strikes ended, rather than some of their development titles, and have been shelling out big bucks to land these hot properties.
Landing so much talent in her first major sale is a massive deal for debut screenwriter Garrett.
Principal photography began on July 6, 2024 in London and Cambridge University. Filming wrapped in August 16, after 6 weeks of shooting.
Luca Guadagino is known for his self-described “Desire” trilogy which includes; “I am Love” (2009), “A Bigger Splash” (2015) and “Call me by Your Name” (2017). He is currently busy with promoting his latest “Queer” starring Daniel Craig, which premiered at Venice this year. He also has the Italian-set “Separate Rooms” starring Josh O’Connor, which he might shoot in 2025.
Guadagino has a stack of other projects lined up as well, including an adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ “The Shards” for HBO. He says a “Call Me By Your Name” sequel, with Armie Hammer and Timothee Chalamet has been written. Finally, his upcoming adaptation of “The Lord of the Flies”, which is still in development and my most anticipated of his projects.
Malik Hassan Sayeed was surprisingly chosen as the cinematographer on “After the Hunt”. many thought he retired from cinema, after not lensing a film in over 25 years. he might be best known for being the DP on Beyonce’s 65-minute “Lemonade”. Sayeed was Spike Lee’s go-to DP in the 90’s. He was also the second unit director of photography on Stanley Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut”.
A 2025 release is being eyed for the film.
