Neon has acquired the worldwide rights to Steven Soderbergh’s latest film “The Christophers,” which premiered at TIFF last month and stars Michaela Coel and Ian McKellen.
Coel plays Lori, an art restorer and former forger who is hired by the children of washed up pop artist Julian Sklar, played by McKellen. Julian was once a star of the London pop art scene decades ago but is now broke and hasn’t painted for years. His children, desperate for an inheritance, want Lori to find and complete eight of his unfinished paintings and return them to a vault where they will be “discovered” after Julian’s death.
Jessica Gunning and James Corden also star in the film, which was written by Ed Solomon in his fourth collaboration with Soderbergh. Neon plans to release the film in the U.S. in 2026 and will represent the international sales rights.
The film is produced and financed by Mike Larocca and Michael Schaefer of Department M and produced by Butler & Sklar Productions with Jim Parks and Iain A. Canning serving as producers and Corey Bayes serving as executive producer. The deal was negotiated by Alison Cohen on behalf of Neon with CAA Media Finance on behalf of the filmmakers.
This is the second Soderbergh film released by Neon, as the studio previously released his supernatural drama “Presence” earlier this year. At TIFF, Neon also acquired Baz Luhrmann’s documentary “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert,” and the distributor’s upcoming slate also includes Cannes Palme d’Or winner “It Was Just an Accident” from Jafar Panahi and Grand Prix winner “Sentimental Value” from Joachim Trier.
