Screenwriter Eric Roth (“Forrest Gump,” “Dune: Part One”), Brian Kavanaugh-Jones (“Longlegs,” “A Complete Unknown”), Andrew Upton of his and Cate Blanchett’s production company Dirty Films (“The New Boy”) and Anne Peters are on board as executive producers of the fable-like tragicomedy “The Present Times.”
The upcoming feature film, directed by Noah Stratton-Twine, stars Daniel Weyman, who plays Gandalf in “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” and standup comedian and actor Nick Helm (“Uncle”).
Weyman and Helm play embittered paparazzi Roy and Ian, respectively, who face the consequences of their intrusive profession when confronted by an immoral scheme and an otherworldly presence.
Joining them in the cast are Paul Kaye (“Game of Thrones”), Raffey Cassidy (“The Brutalist”), Emma McDonald (“Moonhaven”) and Jay Simpson (“Chernobyl”), supported by an ensemble that includes Ada Player (“The Running Man”), Os Leanse (“Artificial”), Ivy Freeman-Attwood (“Elden Ring”), Nish Nathwani (“Surge”) and Luke Rollason (“Supergirl”) — who starred as the lead in Stratton Twine’s first feature “Two Big Feet.”
Stratton-Twine describes the film as “an ode to both Britain’s wealth and history of championing character actors, larger-than-life performances in often ludicrous yet wholly innate and resonant scenarios, and London as a singular and diverse cinematic city, prior and still championed by heroes of mine like Mike Leigh.”
This is the third feature written, directed, edited and scored by Stratton-Twine, who is currently touring his co-directed effort “The Peril at Pincer Point,” which received the Neon Auteur Award at SXSW 2026 and is set to play at Fantasia, Edinburgh Intl. Film Festival and many others, having since screened and won awards at Fantaspoa and Sydney Film Festival.
Also featured in the cast are Kim Durham, Anna Acton, Bron Weigh, Richard Keep, Corinna Marlowe, Ignatius Upton, Andrew Upton, Andi Da Silva, Andre Lillis, Oxa Hazel, Sabira Stanisavljevic, Kenichiro Thomson and Jack Redmayne, who previously led Stratton-Twine’s “The Peril at Pincer Point.”
“The Present Times” is produced by Dashiell Upton, Lev Petrov, Jake Kuhn and Timofey Stolov. Casting by Marta Nogeura. Cinematographer Murray Zev Cohen returns for his third collaboration with Stratton-Twine. The production companies are Right Off Films and Gittes-Cross Pictures.
Principal photography wrapped in May in London.
