Neo-Noir 'Windfall' Starring Jesse Plemons, Lily Collins, And Jason Segel Heads To Netflix
Director Charlie McDowell previously worked with Jason Segel and Jesse Plemons on the 2017 Netflix film The Discovery. Now, he's reteaming with both actors and bringing Lily Collins on board for Windfall, a contemporary-set noir that the streaming giant has just picked up for distribution.
Deadline reports that Netflix has acquired the rights to Windfall in "a major 8-figure dollar deal." The film is described as "a Hitchcockian thriller following a young couple who arrive at their vacation home only to find it's being robbed." It already completed filming earlier this year, with a script co-written by Justin Lader and Andrew Kevin Walker.
Lader co-wrote The Discovery with McDowell and single-handedly penned the script for McDowell's first feature, The One I Love, a great example of a one-location movie that demonstrates you don't need a big budget to tell a good story. Reception to The Discovery was more mixed (it holds a 45% on Rotten Tomatoes, versus The One I Love's 82%) but it's interesting to see Walker's name in the mix here. He's one of the unsung screenwriters we mentioned in our feature on David Fincher's Mank and Hollywood's overlooked scribes. Collins appeared in that film, too, and Walker wrote the script for Fincher's Seven, so neo-noir is very much in his wheelhouse.
The Cast of Windfall on Netflix
Plemons is also no stranger to crime films, having most recently co-starred in The Irishman and reprised his role as Todd Alquist in El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie. No word yet on which character he's playing in Windfall, but he's a versatile actor who can channel likability as an everyman or summon menace as a baby-faced sociopath. So it could go either way with him (though he does have experience from the second season of Fargo playing one-half of a young couple caught up in the middle of a crime).
With his comedic background, Segel seems better suited to playing the schlubby boyfriend or husband of Collins, but you never know, they might try to cast him against type. Or maybe they'll think outside the box and have Plemons and Segel portray the couple while Collins plays the robber.
For his part, McDowell is the son of Mary Steenburgen and Malcolm McDowell (and stepson of Ted Danson) and his mother has had a small role in both of his films. She even lent him her guesthouse for the filming of The One I Love, so it wouldn't be surprising if she popped up in Windfall in a cameo of some sort.
Windfall doesn't have a release date yet but we'll let you know more details about it as soon they arise.