Vanessa Kirby, who earned an Oscar nomination for her performance in Pieces of a Woman and is best known for the White Widow character she played in Mission: Impossible – Fallout and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (as well as landing the role of Sue Storm in the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe version of The Fantastic Four), launched a production company called Aluna Entertainment with former Film4 executive Lauren Dark back in 2021, and Variety reports that Aluna Entertainment is now in production on its first feature film. It’s a thriller called Night Always Comes, and Kirby stars alongside Eli Roth (Inglourious Basterds), Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight), Zack Gottsagen (The Peanut Butter Falcon), Stephan James (If Beale Street Could Talk), Julia Fox (Uncut Gems), Randall Park (WandaVision), and Michael Kelly (House of Cards).
Benjamin Caron, whose credits include The Crown and Andor, is directing Night Always Comes from a screenplay by Sarah Conradt (Mother’s Instinct). Based on the 2021 novel by Lean on Pete author Willy Vlautin, the film follows Lynette, a woman who risks everything to secure a future for herself and her brother by setting out on a dangerous odyssey in Portland, in doing so confronting her own dark past over one propulsive night.
Kirby revealed that Vlautin’s story “reminded me of so many of my favourite films, like Cassavetes’ Gloria, it really had the heartbeat of that, the visceral-ness, and also the Safdie Brothers movies like Uncut Gems and Good Time, and Sebastian Schipper’s Victoria,” adding that she loved the morally complicated, antihero protagonists of those films. “What those movies do is put you at the epicenter of their journey, one that’s really propulsive. But also you’re inside their experience. And to me that’s great cinema, when you feel like you’re going on a journey with them. So that’s why we loved the book.“
Kirby went on to say, “It feels very, very meaningful that our first production happens to be this one, which is this women’s story all set over one night, with all her hope and desperation and complexity. With this team it just feels incredibly special.“
Kirby and Dark are producing Night Always Comes for Aluna Entertainment. Benjamin and Jodie Caron are also producing for Square Eyed Pictures, with Gary Levinsohn and Billy Hines producing for H2L Media Group. Vlautin serves as an executive producer alongside Ryan Bartecki of H2L, Chris Stinson, and Amy Greene.
Night Always Comes is set up at the Netflix streaming service, which previously worked with Kirby on Pieces of a Woman and The Crown, and has a multi-year first-look deal with Aluna Entertainment.
Does Night Always Comes sound interesting to you? What do you think of the cast that has been assembled around Vanessa Kirby? Let us know by leaving a comment below.