David Yates is best known for directing the final four films in the Harry Potter series and the three films that make up its prequel series, Fantastic Beasts. There was supposed to be more Fantastic Beasts movies, but the series sputtered out, and now that a Harry Potter reboot TV series is coming our way, Yates has moved on from the Wizarding World. He directed the 2023 Netflix docudrama Pain Hustlers, and now he’s working on a psychological thriller called Phantom Son, starring Bridget Jones herself, Renée Zellweger. We first heard about this one a month ago, and now Deadline has revealed that Zellweger is being joined in the cast by Spike Fearn of Alien: Romulus and Ella McCay.
In Alien: Romulus, Fearn played an ill-fated character named Bjorn. He also appeared as a “vandal” in The Batman.
Synopsis
Phantom Son will see Fearn taking on the role of Ronnie, a young runaway struggling to survive on the street, who is taken in by Audrey (Zellweger), a lonely woman whose own son was kidnapped twenty years prior. As Audrey becomes convinced that Ronnie actually is her long-lost son, a twisted game of cat and mouse develops, blurring the line between deception and delusion.
Zellweger is also producing the movie and actually developed the thriller’s concept with Carmella Casinelli, under their Big Picture Co. banner. Yates will be directing from a screenplay by Ian Scott McCullough. AGC Studios is financing and co-producing the project. Filming is expected to start in March of 2026.
Something Special
When the project was first announced, Zellweger and Casinelli provided the following statement: “Phantom Son is that rare discovery with promise to connect on a broad scale with the kind of rich, character-driven storytelling we love, and we’re thrilled it’s taking shape with such an extraordinary team. With David at the helm and AGC as our partner, we’re poised to deliver something really special.“
I’m not really familiar with Spike Fear (I’ve only seen Alien: Romulus and The Batman once), but I have been a fan of Zellweger for a long time. Her big break was the Cameron Crowe / Tom Cruise classic Jerry Maguire, but the first time I heard of her was a couple of years earlier, in a Fangoria article on the film that ended up being called Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation. I became a fan soon after that, when I caught the crime thriller Love and a .45 on cable. So, I’ve been following her career almost from the beginning. Her choices of projects haven’t always been to my taste, but I look forward to seeing how Phantom Son turns out, because this thriller sounds like it could be right up my alley.
Does Phantom Son sound interesting to you? What do you think of Spike Fearn joining Renée Zellweger in the cast of this psychological thriller? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
