Lurker (2025)

[BluBonnet]

This festival hit is now acquired by MUBI (US) and Focus (rest of the world)

Alex Russell’s Sundance Hit ‘Lurker’ Acquired by Focus for International

Focus Features has bought international rights to “Lurker,” Alex Russell‘s directorial debut about clout-chasing and the dark side of fame that became one of the standouts hits from this year’s Sundance, Variety has learned.

Arthouse distributor Mubi had already picked up the film for the U.S. out of the festival in a rumored mid-seven-figure deal, as Variety reported. Focus wouldn’t comment on its acquisition.

A tense feature about an ambitious hipster and the rising pop star he exploits, “Lurker” stars Théodore Pellerin as Matty, a lowly clerk at a high-end sneaker and apparel store in Los Angeles. When his favorite singer (“Saltburn” star Archie Madekwe) saunters in, Matty starts cozying up to the social media star. Before long, he’s installed himself in a world of hedonism and opportunity — and he can stay, as long as he manages the pecking order of the entourage and the fickle demands of celebrity. Everything that can go wrong does, taking audiences on a bleak and unsavory ride through the petty and fatal byways of modern fame. Havana Rose Liu, Sunny Suljic, Zack Fox and Daniel Zolghadri also star.

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Archie Madekwe on Going From ‘Saltburn’ Survivor to Preyed-Upon Music Star in ‘Lurker’: It ‘Feels Tense and Anxiety-Inducing, but Is Laced With So Much Comedy’

For a film literally called “Lurker,” Archie Madekwe’s casting in Alex Russell’s chilling directorial debut about fame and fandom came about through a spot of, well, lurking.

The fast-rising British star — one of the few survivors from Emerald Fennell’s aristocratic “Saltburn” murders — had actually submitted a tape for the role of Matthew, the shop assistant/fawning superfan who manages, through near excruciating-to-watch persistence, to insinuate himself into the entourage of music star Oliver.

“I honestly thought I crushed the tape,” he tells Variety. Naturally, the actor then heard nothing back, and in the years that followed, as the project went through various iterations, simply figured it wasn’t to be. As it turned out Russell — best known as a writer on “Beef” and “The Bear” — hadn’t even seen his recording.

But he had spied Madekwe in a Los Angeles coffee shop.

“When we met, he said to me, ‘I just watched you and watched your mannerisms and the way that you were talking … and I thought, he could definitely play Oliver,’” he explains.

And so, unphased by the filmmaker’s somewhat stalkerish approach to finding his lead star, Madekwe went from being the lurker in “Lurker” to the very man being lurked upon, a narcissistic singer on the cusp of megastardom who is eventually won over by parasitic advances of Matthew, played by Théodore Pellerin.

“Lurker” also brought Madekwe his first producer credit, something that was organically instigated by Russell. At dinner while the film was still in development, the filmmaker turned to his two young stars and said, “Look, I’m going to be so lost on this journey and am probably going to have to lean on you guys so much — I’m going to ask you so many questions … I’m gonna get a lot wrong and I’ll need you to hold my hand.”

So Madekwe found himself collaborating closely with the first-time director and getting involved with the heads of department, location scouts, cast and the script. “All of these things, me and Alex just started working in a way that I love to work — and it just became very clear that I was working as a producer,” he says.

Russell also changed the nationality of Oliver to match Madekwe. “He was originally written as American and I was really wanting to play him as American, but Alex got really tied to the idea of him being British,” he said. Coincidentally, around the same time, the musician known as Rex Orange County — who Madekwe says he knows as a friend — got in touch, and, as a British transplant in L.A., became the perfect source of inspiration. “I just started picking his brain a lot.” Rex Orange County wound up gifting the production a song from his then new album.

“You’d actually think that he wrote it for the film,” says Madekwe. “But all these kind of amazing, magic, collaborative moments kept gifting their way to us.”

Madekwe was also tasked with singing as Oliver — something he’d originally been told he wouldn’t have to do. “I think they heard me singing along to a song and were like, ‘We should put you in the studio,'” he says. “Cut to me making a whole album and doing live shows.”

The actual live shows that Oliver performs on screen were real life gigs of “very successful artists” that he says they simply “hijacked,” asking the crowd to stick around for another 10 minutes (and giving them waivers to sign).

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[BluBonnet]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP-_2Uuof00

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[MikeScott]

This looks really good.

[BluBonnet]

Metacritic

[RevolverOcelScott]

Would have to liked to see this, but not a single theater is playing it. Hopefully it gets added in a few weeks.

[BluBonnet]

Expands to 4 more cities next week, wide by Sept 5th!

[BluCollector13]

Saw it last week with Alex Russell Q&A after and enjoyed it quite a bit. Plays like "Ingrid Goes West"'s more insidious cousin and the duo of Pellerin and Madekwe are two of the year's best performances for what they do with just their faces.

Hoping the 35mm version makes it to LA soon.

[SleazyForWeasley]

Completely fascinating! Glad I went in without even seeing a trailer.