It is shaping up to be a very full December at the multiplex. Tony Gilroy — the writer-director who gave audiences “Michael Clayton” in 2007 and spent the last few years earning near-universal acclaim as the creator and showrunner of “Andor” on Disney+ — is bringing his new film “Behemoth!” to the New York Film Festival for a world premiere before a December theatrical release, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The Searchlight Pictures film stars Pedro Pascal and Olivia Wilde. Pascal, whose profile has been in a sustained vertical climb since “The Last of Us” and the “Mandalorian” years, adds a Gilroy collaboration to a filmography that has been running very hot. Wilde, meanwhile, steps back in front of the camera after a stretch that included her own directorial work on “Booksmart” and “Don't Worry Darling.”
Gilroy is not a director who floods the zone. “Behemoth!” will be only his third feature as director in nearly twenty years, which is the kind of release cadence that tends to make festival programmers and awards voters pay close attention. NYFF, which runs each fall at Lincoln Center, has historically served as a reliable launchpad for films with serious December ambitions.
Searchlight has not announced a specific December date, but awards-season positioning is written into the calendar logic. The world premiere at NYFF puts the first public screenings roughly in October, leaving the studio several weeks to manage rollout before a wider December push.