Can you market to a mainstream genre crowd and an open-minded faith-based audience simultaneously? Magnolia is trying just that with The Carpenter’s Son, writer and director Lotfy Nathan’s life of teenage Jesus story based on The Infancy Gospel of Thomas, a obscure apocryphal gospel.
The film stars Nicolas Cage and FKA Twigs as Joseph and Mary, Noah Jupe as Jesus and Isla Johnston as a mysterious stranger who targets the family in a remote settlement in Roman-era Egypt. With every pull of temptation, the boy is lured into a forbidden world as terrified Joseph realizes that a demonic power is at work. Violent, unnatural events inexplicably follow Jesus, and he begins to experience nightmarish visions of the future. Finally, he learns the fearsome truth about his new playmate.
Nathan drew from his Coptic Christian background for the film but says he is not particularly religious, just found the story fascinating when his father, a religious history buff, introduced him to the text five years ago. “I like stories. I also appreciated certain biblical films of the past. As my dad was telling me about this apocryphal text, that there’s this kind of dark story of Jesus’ childhood, my mind was going to the text over black in the beginning of the film, you know, just setting the table,” he tells Deadline.
He understood it was tough subject matter but, “When you get an itch like that, it’s pretty rare and I just have to go through it.”
He said personally he’d want to see a movie about a teenage Jesus. Will a broader audience? The critical response has been mixed to harsh. Deadline’s review called it a “Biblical Horror Mashup As Teenage Jesus Hangs With The Wrong Influencer.”
A challenge was melding the biblical and the scary, which comes directly from the text. This is being called a horror film. “The story is very brutal. It presents younger Jesus in his adolescence as this petulant, vengeful child who kills people and is misguided. For me, that was really just an entry point to saying, okay, there’s this uncharted time in the life of this notable story … I had to give it a lot more story and a lot more substance. The way that Infancy Gospel is written is kind of like the laundry list of events.”
“There isn’t a clear kind of genre to hang it on,” said Lotfy. “It’s a sort of an experiment for me in trying to tow both lines. It’s not an out-and-out horror film by any means. I didn’t have any interest in making that because I just don’t think it would fit the subject matter. It’s really just trying to color in what could be an origin story, to fill in the blanks.”
November is peak truffle season and Cohen Media Group opens director Gabriele Fabbro’s Italian indie Trifole on 126 screens in 53 markets – CMG’s widest release post-Covid — and also giving it a big foodie marketing push tied to the rare delicacies that hide deep in the forests around Alba in Northern Italy where the film was shot.
Igor, an aging truffle hunter played by Italian screen legend Umberto Orsini, faces failing health and vanishing woodlands while struggling to keep pace with the modern truffle market. Enter Dalia (Ydalie Turk), his 28-year-old granddaughter from London, disconnected from her roots and searching for direction. Tasked with caring for him, their awkward reunion softens as she’s drawn into his passion for truffle hunting and his world. When an accounting oversight threatens Igor’s home, Dalia embarks on a quest to find a legendary “lightning-struck” truffle that could save the day guided by Igor’s notes and his faithful dog, Birba (a real-life truffle hunter starring as himself). She confronts rival hunters, unexpected danger and an awakening sense of purpose set against Piedmont’s autumn woods and Alba’s centuries-old truffle fair.
Also stars Margherita Buy, a seven-time David di Donatello Award-winner. Fabbro and Turk co-wrote the screenplay.
The venues are a mix of CMG’s Landmark locations and Quad Cinema in NYC, Kendal Square in Cambridge, Landmark Pasadena, Ritz 5 in Philadelphia and others along with multiple AMC, Regal and independent screens. Fabbro and Turk will be at the Quad on Friday and Saturday nights and at the Laemmle Royal in Los Angeles on Sunday for Q&As.
To drum up interest, CMG is doing a giveaway in partnership with Eataly LA. Moviegoers who purchase tickets to see Trifole on its opening weekend can enter to win one of four pairs of tickets to Eataly LA’s exclusive White Truffle Dinner on November 19.
In New York on opening weekend, ticket holders for the 7:10 p.m. shows on November 14-15 at the Quad will receive a complimentary truffle bite courtesy of Truffle importer Tartuflanghe and prepared by Italian eatery Roscioli, which will also feature a special Trifole menu item from November 14-30 to celebrate the film and Northern Italy’s Langhe region.
Elsewhere, Roadside Attractions opens indie filmmaker John Swab’s Venice-premiering action thriller King Ivory on 752 screens.
A multi-faceted dive into the U.S. fentanyl crisis that weaves together storylines from various angles of the war on drugs, the film follows Tulsa drug cop Layne West (James Badge Dale). When his son gets hooked on fentanyl, West makes it his mission to take down those responsible including the Mexican cartel’s local shot-caller, Ramón Garza (Michael Mando); Indian Brotherhood War Chief, Holt Lightfeather (Graham Greene), who controls state-wide trafficking while serving life inside the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at McAlester; and the local Irish mob family led by George “Smiley” Greene (Ben Foster) along with his mother Ginger (Melissa Leo) and uncle Mickey (Ritchie Coster).
Limited: Bleecker Street’s buzzy Sundance drama Rebuilding from director Max Walker-Silverman and starring Josh O’Connor, Lily LaTorre, Meghann Fahy, Kali Reis and Amy Madigan debuts at two New York theaters with a nationwide rollout to follow. The film premiered to rave reviews (Deadline’s here) and sits at 95% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes (43 reviews). Filmed against the backdrop of southern Colorado, Rebuilding follows Dusty (O’Connor), a reserved, divorced father whose ranch has burned down in a devastating wildfire. Now living in a trailer community on a government-run campsite, Dusty finds solace with his new neighbors who have also lost everything, quietly reassembles his life, and starts reconnecting with his ex-wife Ruby (Fahy) and young daughter Callie-Rose (LaTorre).
Cineverse is out with Canada’s official Oscar selection and Sundance award-winning thriller The Things You Kill at the IPIC Theater in New York, expanding to L.A. and additional markets next week.
Haunted by the suspicious death of his ailing mother, Ali, a university professor, coerces his enigmatic gardener to execute a cold-blooded act of vengeance. As long-buried family secrets resurface, the police tighten their noose. Winner of the 2025 Sundance Directing Award: World Cinema, Dramatic, it’s written and directed By Alireza Khatami and stars Ekin Koç, Erkan Kolçak Köstendil, Hazar Ergüçlü, Ercan Kesal, Serhat Nalbantoğlu, Aysan Sümercan and Selen Kurtaran. At 97% with RT critics (36 reviews).
Neon’s Keeper, the latest from horror auteur Osgood Perkins (Longlegs, Monkey) opens on 1,950 screens after previewing on 1,500 Thursday. Stars Tatiana Maslany and Rossif Sutherland as Liz and Malcolm, a couple off on a romantic anniversary weekend at a secluded cabin. When Malcolm suddenly returns to the city, Liz finds herself isolated and in the presence of an unspeakable evil that unveils the cabin’s horrifying secrets. Script by Nick Lepard.
Neon also expands Joachim Trier’s Cannes Grand Prix-winning Sentimental Value to 28 theaters in week 2, adding Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, Portland and Austin. And the distributor kicks off qualifying runs for Arco at the Angelika in NYC and the AMC Burbank; and Cannes Jury and sound track prize-winner Sirāt at Lincoln Center and Burbank.
IFC Entertainment Group is out with action thriller Muzzle: City of Wolves at 575 theaters. Haunted by PTSD from his days as a K-9 officer, Jake Rosser (Aaron Eckhart) endeavors to lead a peaceful life with his family and retired companion, Socks. However, tranquility dissolves into chaos when a ruthless gang, headed by the mysterious Totec, targets them in a brutal attack. Alongside his new canine partner Argos, Jake launches into a relentless pursuit of justice, determined to protect his loved ones. As he delves into the violent underbelly of crime, he confronts corrupt officials, uncovers a perilous drug trafficking operation, and battles his own inner demons. Racing against time, Jake and Argos must dismantle Totec’s sinister scheme, leveraging every clue to reveal the truth and secure justice in this sequel to Muzzle, produced and directed by John Stalberg Jr and written by Jacob Michael King.