PRODUCTION / FUNDING USA / Brazil / Greece
Heretic to co-produce and internationally sell Michael Almereyda’s Zero K
by Olivia Popp
- The adaptation of Don DeLillo’s science-fiction novel, which will star Caleb Landry Jones, Peter Sarsgaard and Andrea Riseborough, is set to begin shooting in São Paulo in early 2026
The upcoming Zero K, to be directed by Michael Almereyda, is based on the 2016 science-fiction novel of the same name by critically acclaimed US author Don DeLillo, best known for his speculative works on the digital age and the future. Written by Almereyda, and starring Caleb Landry Jones, Peter Sarsgaard and Andrea Riseborough, the film is scheduled to enter production in São Paulo in early 2026.
According to recently released summaries, Zero K follows a young man pulled into the dealings of his tech-billionaire father, who intends to use his wealth and capabilities to find a way to extend and enhance human life. In DeLillo’s novel, a New York Times bestseller, his father is specifically drawn towards this in light of his wife’s terminal illness, and he seeks to achieve immortality for the two of them via cryopreservation.
Almereyda is a US filmmaker known for the Ethan Hawke-led 2020 Tesla biopic; his 2000 Hamlet adaptation, also starring Hawke; and Experimenter, his 2015 drama about the infamous Milgram experiment. The film will be the fourth collaboration between Anthony Katagas and Rodrigo Teixeira on the production side. Almereyda has previously worked with Sarsgaard for Experimenter and DoP Sean Price Williams for two of his previous films, Marjorie Prime and Tesla.
Zero K will be produced by Anthony Katagas for New York-based Keep Your Head, Rodrigo Teixeira for São Paulo-based RT Features, Renée Frigo and Giorgos Karnavas for Athens-based Heretic, and Almereyda. RT Features is a top Brazilian production house known for a wide variety of hits of all genres, most recently adding to its roster Radu Jude’s Dracula [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Radu Jude
film profile] and Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]. Heretic’s sales branch will also be handling the film’s international sales.
Landry Jones was last seen in Luc Besson’s Dracula: A Love Tale as the title character, while Riseborough most recently played in Jan Komasa’s Good Boy [+see also:
film review
film profile]. Riseborough will also serve as an executive producer for Zero K. Sarsgaard featured in Tim Fehlbaum’s September 5 [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and will also star in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s upcoming take on Frankenstein, The Bride!.
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