By: Matt Grobar
May 7th, 2025
EXCLUSIVE: Tony Award winner Brian Swibel has set a stacked cast for his feature directorial debut, comedic thriller The Very Best People. The ensemble piece will feature Paul Walter Hauser (Black Bird), Lili Reinhart (Hal & Harper), Tim Roth (Pulp Fiction), Jake Lacy (The White Lotus), Jai Courtney (Suicide Squad), and Kerry Bishé (Halt and Catch Fire).
Written by John Lavelle based on his play The Very Best People, which premiered at IAMA theatre company in the fall of 2024, along with Blades of Glory‘s Craig Cox, the film’s plot is being kept under wraps. Production kicks off in New York on May 22nd.
Brent Emery (The Stanford Prison Experiment), Justin Klosky, Alex Peace-Power, Tara Smith and Bita Khorrami are producing for Swibel’s Triptyk Studios, which is venturing into narrative features for the first time on this project. Veteran producer and casting director Bonnie Timmermann is also set to produce, with Hauser, Reinhart, Dan Reardon and Lisa Wolofsky exec producing.
Jonathan Kier and Matt Brodlie’s Upgrade will introduce the project to buyers at the upcoming Cannes market, with UTA Independent Film Group repping North America.
Swibel is a two-time Cannes Film Festival selectee, including for its prestigious Kodak Emerging Filmmaker series. Other film and TV work includes producing the Tribeca-winning documentaries Common Ground (Amazon) and Kiss the Ground (Netflix), along with acclaimed HBO and Netflix specials from Will Ferrell, John Mulaney, Nick Kroll, and Mike Birbiglia. A Tony winner and seven-time nominee, he’s also the co-founder and Artistic Director of Triptyk Studios, whose theatrical work includes Moulin Rouge, An Enemy of the People starring Jeremy Strong, and The Seagull starring Carey Mulligan.
Hauser is represented by CAA, Artists First, and Schreck Rose; Reinhart by UTA, Anonymous Content, and Peikoff Mahan; Roth by CAA, Jackoway Tyerman Wertheimer, and Markham, Froggatt & Irwin; Lacy by UTA, Beth Rosner Management, and James Adams and Isaac Dunham at SRDA LLC; Courtney by UTA and Morrissey Management; Bishé by Gersh and Brookside Artist Management; Lavelle by Black Bear, Innovative Artists and Jared Sheer at Tribeca Law; Swibel by UTA; and Cox by Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment and Eclipse Law.