After teaming with Succession‘s Jesse Armstrong on Mountainhead, the fast-tracked billionaire satire for HBO, and following rave reviews for his work on Saturday Night, Cory Michael Smith has found his first major leading film role in October, a new A24 genre picture from Jeremy Saulnier (Rebel Ridge).
The project brings Smith back to A24 following his work on the upcoming Zac Efron thriller Famous. Previously, Saulnier worked with the studio on Green Room, his gritty 2016 horror thriller starring Patrick Stewart and Anton Yelchin.
No word on the role Smith will be playing in October. Plot details are being kept under wraps, but sources described the project as a fugitive thriller set during Halloween. Saulnier will direct from his own script, with A24 producing and financing.
Rich Peete (Neighborhood Watch), Eli Bush (Central) and Jeremy Saulnier & Skei Saulnier (Niteowl Films) will produce the horror action thriller, with Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie (Central), Traci Carlson and Elliott Coley (Neighborhood Watch) and Macon Blair (Bonneville Pictures) exec producing. Casting for additional roles is underway.
Smith plays the world’s wealthiest man, Ven Parish, in Mountainhead, starring opposite Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, and Ramy Youssef. Prior to that, he drew perhaps career-best reviews for his turn as Chevy Chase in Jason Reitman’s film Saturday Night, going behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first taping of Saturday Night Live.
Most recently, Smith wrapped on Famous, as well as the pilot for Amazon’s The Nightbeast opposite Tatiana Maslany. Next, he’ll be seen starring alongside Renate Reinsve, Elle Fanning and Stellan Skarsgård in Sentimental Value, the lauded Joachim Trier dramedy which won Cannes’ Grand Prix and is slated for release with Neon and Mubi this fall.
Also a Cannes prize winner, Saulnier most recently directed Rebel Ridge, Netflix’s Critics’ Choice Award-winning action thriller staring Aaron Pierre, which garnered the streamer’s third-biggest film debut of 2024. The film broke first-week viewership records for Netflix and is one of the most-watched Netflix movies in its first week, behind Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.'
Saulnier is also known for work on the films Hold the Dark and Blue Ruin, as well as HBO’s True Detective. He’s represented by CAA, Untitled, and Granderson Des Rochers.
Smith is repped by UTA and Circle Management + Production.
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