Craig Gillespie is directing Glen Powell in a sci-fi thriller called Homewreckers for Legendary, and the combination alone is enough to get my attention. Deadline is calling the project "twisty" and "erotic," which is the kind of description that either means they are onto something genuinely provocative or the marketing team got excited too early. I am hoping for the former.
The logline is being kept under wraps for now, which is usually a good sign. Studios that hide the premise tend to do so because revealing it would spoil the hook. Powell is not just starring but producing as well, which signals he sees this as more than a paycheck. When an actor at his level attaches himself as a producer on a genre film, it typically means the script has something in it that grabbed him by the collar.
Powell is, right now, the most reliably watchable American actor working. That is not hyperbole. Hit Man told you exactly who he is. He can do charm, he can do menace, and he can make you believe both at the same time. The fact that he keeps choosing interesting projects instead of coasting on rom-coms or franchise work says a lot about where his head is at. A sci-fi thriller with erotic undertones is a genuine swing, and I respect it.
Then there is Gillespie. The man directed I, Tonya and Lars and the Real Girl, two films that have almost nothing in common except that they are both better than they have any right to be. He has a knack for taking potentially gimmicky material and grounding it in real human behavior. His Cruella was more fun than anyone expected. He opens Supergirl this Friday and is already in talks for Homewreckers, which tells you he is operating at a pace that suggests confidence rather than desperation.
The pairing of Gillespie and Powell feels smart because both of them thrive when the material walks a line between genre and character study. Gillespie does not make pure popcorn films, and Powell does not give pure popcorn performances. Put them together on something that Deadline is willing to call erotic, and you have a project that could land somewhere between Body Heat and Ex Machina.
Legendary is backing it, which means the budget will be there. The question is whether the script can match the talent attached. We do not know much yet, and that is fine. Sometimes the best thing a movie can do before it starts shooting is stay quiet and let the names do the talking. These names are talking plenty.
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