What Happens in Vegas: THR’s Hot List of the Buzziest Movies at AFM

Scott Roxborough

Wed, October 30, 2024 at 5:00 PM UTC

14 min read

Producers and distributors at the American Film Market are focusing on indie action films, with a shift away from horror dominating recent markets.
The AFM features a variety of projects, including action films starring new generation stars like Daisy Ridley and Amber Midthunder, as well as art-house dramas with A-list actors like Zendaya and Robert Pattinson.
The market includes a diverse range of genres, from period dramas to psychological thrillers, with notable projects like "By Any Means" starring Mark Wahlberg and Sterling K. Brown, and "Spermageddon," an animated musical about sperm cells.

Producers and distributors heading to Las Vegas for this year's American Film Market , which runs Nov. 5-10, are betting big that indie action is primed for a comeback.

The AFM was built on action movies — the leading independent film bazaar launched in 1981 at the start of a decade defined by the cinematic stylings of Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steven Segal, Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme. But in recent markets, with the headline-grabbing success of breakouts like Neon's Longlegs and Cineverse's Terrifier 3 , action has taken a backseat to horror.

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There will be scares-a-plenty at AFM 2024, but many of the market's buzziest projects sit squarely in the action space. Even a few that don't star Liam Neeson, Gerard Butler, Jason Statham or Nic Cage. How buyers respond to this new generation of would-be action stars — Daisy Ridley, Amber Midthunder, Alan Ritchson — will determine who will be toting the guns on the AFM posters of the future.

But the AFM isn't just about genre movies. The Hollywood Reporter 's annual hot list of the most interesting sales titles on offer features a little something for everyone, from art-house dramas with Zendaya, Robert Pattinson and Jessica Chastain, to an adult animated musical featuring singing sperm.

Alpha Gang

DIRECTORSDavid and Nathan Zellner
STARSCate Blanchett, Dave Bautista, Steven Yeun, Zoë Kravitz, Léa Seydoux, Riley Keough, Channing Tatum
BUZZThe Zellner Brothers' follow-up to their wacky Bigfoot comedy Sasquatch Sunset was already a hot title at the Cannes market when MK2 kicked off pre-sales with only the pitch — a twisted take on the 1950s alien invasion movie featuring extraterrestrials disguised as a 1950s leather-clad biker gang — and double Oscar winner Blanchett on board. Coming into AFM, Alpha Gang has upped the ante with an all-star supporting cast.
SALESMK2, CAA Media Finance

Assassination

DIRECTORBarry Levinson
STARSJessica Chastain, Brendan Fraser, Bryan Cranston, Al Pacino
BUZZ Wag the Dog director Levinson helms the A-list cast in this David Mamet-penned mystery thriller with a new angle on the JFK assassination conspiracy, following Dorothy Kilgallen (Chastain), America's first female crime reporter, who questions if Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.
SALESConcord Studios

Break the Cycle

DIRECTORDevonte Brown
STARSCuba Gooding Jr., Vivica A. Fox, Loretta Devine
BUZZThe first project from ex-NBA player Jarnell Stokes' Stoked Bros Media, and part of a three-film slate being co-produced and co-financed with German group ORWO, will test the current global appetite for indie urban thrillers with a story of two brothers — one striving for the NBA and the other entangled in street crime.
SALESORWO

By Any Means

DIRECTORElegance Bratton
STARSMark Wahlberg, Sterling K. Brown
BUZZPeriod drama can be a tough sell at AFM but this based-on-a-true story tale has a significant genre edge, with the story of a mafia hitman (Wahlberg), hired off the books by the FBI who partners with a young Black special agent (Brown) to hunt down the murderers of civil rights leaders in 1966 Mississippi.
SALESNorth.Five.Six, WME Independent, CAA Media Finance

Chariot

DIRECTORSteve Pink
STARSKit Harington, Billy Magnussen
BUZZAn out-there comedy from the Hot Tub Time Machine helmer whose plot — an oversized jockey seeking redemption teams up with a Centaur to compete in the Grand National — just might be weird enough to work with global buyers.
SALESThe Exchange

Cleaner

DIRECTORMartin Campbell
STARSDaisy Ridley, Clive Owen, Taz Skylar
BUZZStraight-up action with a social conscience from Casino Royale helmer Campbell, with Star Wars alum Ridley playing an ex-soldier turned window cleaner who goes Die Hard when radical activists hijack an energy company's swanky gala in the skyscraper she's squeegeeing. Ninety stories up she has to save the hostages while also bringing the corrupt energy moguls to justice.
SALESAnton Corp

Day Drinker

DIRECTORMarc Webb
STARSJohnny Depp, Penélope Cruz
BUZZ Pirates of the Caribbean co-stars Depp and Cruz re-team for this action thriller from Amazing Spider-Man director Webb and John Wick producers Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee. A project that will test the market for a mainstream Depp comeback after his forays into international period indies like Jeanne du Barry , in which he co-starred, and Modi: Three Days on the Wing of Madness, which he directed.
SALESLionsgate

The Drama

DIRECTORKristoffer Borgli
STARSZendaya, Robert Pattinson, Mamoudou Athie, Alana Haim
BUZZThe plot of The Drama is shrouded in mystery, but the idea of Zendaya and Robert Pattinson in a film from Dream Scenario director Kristoffer Borgli should be sufficient to pique the interest of speciality buyers worldwide.
SALESA24

Dreams

DIRECTORMichel Franco
STARSJessica Chastain, Rupert Friend, Isaac Hernández
BUZZA pure art-house play, Dreams comes with the above-the-line rep of Mexican helmer Franco, fresh off his Venice Festival winner Memory , reteaming with the film's star Chastain, who here plays a wealthy socialite who embarks on a romance with a Mexican ballet dancer (Hernández).
SALESThe Match Factory, Gersh

Eye for an Eye

DIRECTORColin Tilley
STARSWhitney Peak, S. Epatha Merkerson, Golda Rosheuvel, Finn Bennett, Laken Giles
BUZZThe feature debut of top music video director Tilley promises the visual flare to complement its Gen Z-friendly cast to appeal to high-end horror buyers, with a tale of a tormented soul who exacts revenge on bullies in the Florida swamplands.
SALESHanWay, WME

Fairytale in New York

DIRECTORJalmari Helander
STARSKe Huy Quan
BUZZA holiday actioner to stuff the Die Hard -sized hole in every indie distributor's stocking, this adrenaline pumper sees the Everything Everywhere All At Once star playing a New York cabbie forced to face down a gang of thugs to retrieve a stolen gift and reconnect with his estranged son on Christmas Eve.
SALESLionsgate

Faster Than Horses

DIRECTORJames Erskine
STARSAnsel Elgort
BUZZA twist on the survival thriller genre with Baby Driver and Tokyo Vice star Elgort playing a runner in the grueling Marathon des Sables ultramarathon across the Sahara Desert who gets engulfed in a sandstorm. Survival expert Bear Grylls is producing.
SALESUpgrade Productions, CAA Media Finance

Hammer Down

DIRECTORSimon Hatt
STARSIdris Elba
BUZZA straight-down-the-middle action movie to feed the global machine from the James Gunn-mentored Hatt (a co-producer on Suicide Squad ) which sees Elba as a big rig truck driver with no qualms about delivering "packages" for shady customers. Until, on the day he brings his daughter along for a ride, his truck is attacked by a group of criminals determined to steal his illicit load.
SALESBlack Bear

The Housekeeper

DIRECTORRichard Eyre
STARSUma Thurman, Phoebe Dynevor, Anthony Hopkins
BUZZA top-shelf period drama of the sort theatrical buyers, particularly in Europe, are hungry for, this 1930s-set feature from Notes on a Scandal and Iris director Eyre imagines a fictionalized origin story for Daphne du Maurier's novel Rebecca in which the young novelist (played by Dynevor) enters into a heated tangled love affair with a Polish housekeeper (Thurman) who works for the wealthy and widowed Lord DeWithers (Hopkins).
SALESEmbankment Films, CAA Media Finance

I Love Boosters

DIRECTORBoots Riley
STARSEiza González, Poppy Liu, Taylour Paige, Will Poulter, Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackei, LaKeith Stanfield, Demi Moore
BUZZArt-house buyers will be scoping out Riley's hotly anticipated feature follow-up to 2018 cross-over hit Sorry to Bother You , which follows a ring of enterprising shoplifters — aka boosters — who take aim at a cutthroat fashion maven.
SALESNeon

John Cranko

DIRECTORJoachim A. Lang
STARSSam Riley
BUZZThe artist biopic, with its built-in audience of fans and clear marketing hooks, remains an indie film favorite. Beta is looking to score with this cinematic, dance-infused tribute to virtuoso choreographer John Cranko ( Control star Sam Riley), who, after being prosecuted for homosexuality in the U.K., fled to Stuttgart, where he became a pop star of the dance world.
SALESBeta Cinema

The Journeyman

DIRECTORTarsem Singh
STARSDev Patel
BUZZ Black Swan meets Challengers in this taut crime thriller from The Fall director Singh about a struggling pro tennis player drawn into the violent and corrupt world of illegal match-fixing that could appeal to indie buyers looking to up their game.
SALESAGC Studios, CAA Media Finance

The Last Druid

DIRECTORWill Eubank
STARSRussell Crowe
BUZZNearly 25 years after Gladiator , Crowe switches sides to fight the Roman empire in this historic actioner targeting mainstream buyers, playing a Celtic elder forced to protect his people from a Roman Emperor who discovers their Druid stronghold.
SALESAGC Studios, Range Media Partners, CAA Media Finance

Last Night at the Lobster

DIRECTORWagner Moura
STARSWagner Moura, Sofia Carson, Brian Tyree Henry, Elisabeth Moss
BUZZCivil War star Moura gets behind the camera on this dramedy based on Stewart O'Nan's novel, which is targeting bespoke indie distributors worldwide with its A-list cast playing the staff of a chain seafood restaurant who get snowed in on the final night before it closes for good.
SALESBankside Films, WME Independent

Kill the Jockey

DIRECTORLuis Ortega
STARSNahuel Pérez Biscayart, Ursula Corberó
BUZZOne for the weird crowd, this surreal comedy-thriller from Argentinian director Luis Ortega follows a jockey ( BPM star Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) who discovers his feminine side after a devastating accident. The film is too oddball for the multiplex but its deft genre mash-up — switching lanes from pulpy gangster movie to gender confusion drama to full-on farce — could appeal to adventurous art-house house buyers.
SALESProtagonist Pictures

Kraken

DIRECTORPål Øie
BUZZNorway, as shown in Netflix hit Troll , knows its way around a creature feature. This new monster movie, from Dark Water director Pål Øie, is targeting the midnight madness crowd and ancillary markets with its combo of Scandinavian folklore and modern ecological concerns in a story of a marine biologist who uncovers a dark secret deep beneath the surface of a fjord.
SALESTrustNordisk

The Light Fantastic

DIRECTORChris Cottam
STARSJeremy Irvine, Rupert Everett, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Layton Williams
BUZZA grown-up take on Billy Elliot , this Brit comedy sees War Horse and Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again actor Irvine playing a gay firefighter who pursues his ballroom dancing dreams, coached by a staunchly traditional instructor, played by Everett.
SALESCornerstone

Marty Supreme

DIRECTORJosh Safdie
STARSTimothée Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tyler The Creator, Fran Drescher
BUZZA period movie about a 1950s ping-pong star might not seem like a must-have but the A-list cast and the indie cred of Uncut Gems and Good Time director should bring in specialty buyers a-plenty for this feature which is loosely based on the life of table tennis champ Marty Reisman but thought (plot details are still under wraps), to be a more mainstream adventure-comedy in the vein of Cath Me If You Can.
SALESA24

Merciless

DIRECTORMartin Villeneuve
STARSJonathan Majors, Melanie Liburd, Henry Czerny
BUZZJonathan Majors' first film role following his much-publicized trial and misdemeanor conviction will test the market waters for a comeback by the Loki and Creed III star. The supernatural revenge thriller from Martin "brother of Denis" Villeneuve sees Majors playing a CIA interrogator who is forced to defeat a malevolent force that has overtaken the woman he loves.
SALESK5 International

Misty Green

DIRECTORChris Rock
STARSChris Rock
BUZZIndie domestic buyers as well as streamers will be checking out this new pitch from comedy giant Rock, described as an insider look at Hollywood excess and inequality. It could prove a harder sell internationally but Neon is betting on Rock's name and the timely storyline will sway pre-sales.
SALESNeon International, CAA Media Finance

Monkey Hill

DIRECTORSarah Adina Smith
STARSOlivia Wilde, Gael García Bernal
BUZZPost- Babygirl , the sexy psychological thriller is hotter than ever, suggesting buyers will be lining up for this new feature. Adapted from the Paul Theroux story of the same name, it has Wilde and Bernal playing white-collar criminals hiding out in indulgent luxury in India who unwisely venture beyond the hotel gates that protect them.
SALESUpgrade Productions, 2AM, WME Independent

Painter

DIRECTORGarrett Warren
STARSAmber Midthunder, Alan Ritchson
BUZZArguably the purest action play at AFM this year, this project from John Wick screenwriter Derek Kolstad and stunt-coordinator-turned-director Warren ( Logan , Road House ) is being set up as a gender-flipped take on Taken , with Midthunder as a young woman with a particular set of skills who has to rescue her father after he is kidnapped.
SALESFilmNation Entertainment, CAA Media Finance

Paper Tiger

DIRECTORJames Gray
STARSAdam Driver, Jeremy Strong, Anne Hathaway
BUZZGray re-teams with his Armageddon Time stars Hathaway and Strong for an elevated crime drama-thriller which could hit the sweet spot between box office cross-over and awards contender in a story of two brothers [Driver and Strong] pursuing the American Dream who become entangled in a dangerous scheme involving the Russian mafia.
SALESThe Veterans, CAA Media Finance

Pendulum

DIRECTORMark Heyman
STARSJoseph Gordon-Levitt
BUZZAn elevated genre play for theatrical buyers, this feature from Black Swan writer Mark Heyman (and produced by Darren Aronofsky) sees Gordon-Levitt playing Patrick, a man who travels with his wife to a new age retreat, hoping some unconventional spirituality will heal their trauma, only to be caught up in something far more terrifying.
SALESBlack Bear, UTA Independent Film Group, CAA Media Finance, WME Independent

The Performance

DIRECTORShira Piven
STARSJeremy Piven, Robert Carlyle, Adam Garcia, Steven Berkoff, Suzanne Shepherd
BUZZA pick for upper-end arthouse distributors, this period drama, inspired by an Arthur Miller short story, sees Piven play Harold May, an American Jewish tap dancer in 1930s Berlin whose troupe is scouted to give an exclusive performance for Adolf Hitler.
SALESAlliance Media Partners

Pressure

DIRECTORAnthony Maras
STARSAndrew Scott, Brendan Fraser, Kerry Condon, Damian Lewis, Chris Messina
BUZZA blue-chip period drama certain to attract the attention of upscale theatrical buyers, this new feature from the director of Hotel Mumbai follows the seventy-two hours leading up to D-Day as Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) debates with Britain's chief meteorological officer, James Stagg (Andrew Scott) whether weather conditions will allow the largest-ever seaborne to go ahead.
SALESStudiocanal

Spermageddon

DIRECTORSTommy Wirkola, Rasmus A. Sivertsen
BUZZWirkola has gone from Dead Snow 's zombie Nazis to singing semen in this raunchy, but surprisingly sweet , animated musical about two sperm cells vying to reach an egg. Set somewhere between a sex-ed film for teens and an X-rated episode of South Park , it could be a tough sell for traditional family buyers but its ballsy premise has the makings of a cult hit.
SALESCharades

Splitsville

DIRECTORMichael Covino
STARSDakota Johnson, Adria Arjona, Michael Covino, Kyle Marvin
BUZZThe new comedy from The Climb director Covino has a slick marketing hook, involving a man in a failing relationship who decides to solve matters by trying an open marriage, with disastrous results.
SALESNeon

Untitled Christy Martin

DIRECTORDavid Michôd
STARSSydney Sweeney, Ben Foster, Merritt Wever, Katy O'Brian, Ethan Embry, Jess Gabor, Chad L. Coleman
BUZZThe red-hot Sydney Sweeney pulls on the gloves and steps into the ring for this based-on-a-true story of the 1990s boxing champion Christy Martin.
SALESBlack Bear, UTA Independent Film Group, AC Independent

Victorian Psycho

DIRECTORZachary Wigon
STARSMargaret Qualley
BUZZA high-end psychological horror set to stand out from AFM's ocean of schlock, this re-teaming of Qualley, with her Sanctuary director Wigon sees The Substance star playing a 19th-century psychopathic governess assigned to unsuspecting children in a remote gothic manor.
SALESAnton, UTA Independent Film Group, CAA Media Finance

Twilight of the Dead

DIRECTORBrad Anderson
STARSMilla Jovovich, Betty Gabriel
BUZZThe seventh and (supposedly) final installment in George A. Romero's seminal Living Dead franchise is all but guaranteed to sell and the quality imprimatur of The Machinist and Transsiberian director Anderson should help boost the asking price.
SALESFortitude International

This story appeared in the Oct. 30 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe .

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