Focus Features sews up ‘The Outfit’ with Mark Rylance, Dylan O’Brien, Zoey Deutch and Johnny Flynn

Focus Features and FilmNation Entertainment announced today that they will begin production on crime drama The Outfit. The Outfit marks the feature directorial debut of Academy Award winner Graham Moore (The Imitation Game), who will direct from his own screenplay which is co-written with actor/writer Johnathan McClain (Mad Men). Academy Award winner Mark Rylance (The Trial of the Chicago 7), Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner series), Zoey Deutch (Set It Up) and Johnny Flynn (Emma) are set to star. Producers are Scoop Wasserstein, Ben Browning and Amy Jackson. Production is set to begin in March in London. FilmNation Entertainment will finance the film and has sold rights to Focus Features to distribute the film worldwide with CAA Media Finance co-repping the US rights sale. The reteaming of FilmNation Entertainment and Focus Features follows the success of their partnership on critically acclaimed Promising Young Woman. Academy Award nominee Dick Pope (Mr. Turner) will serve as Director of Photography. Academy Award nominee Gemma Jackson (Aladdin) will serve as Production Designer. Academy Award winner William Goldenberg (Argo) will serve as Editor. Zac Posen and Sophie O’Neill will serve as Costume Designers.

The film follows Leonard (Rylance), an English tailor who used to craft suits on London’s world-famous Savile Row. But after a personal tragedy, he’s ended up in Chicago, operating a small tailor shop in a rough part of town where he makes beautiful clothes for the only people around who can afford them: A family of vicious gangsters.

“A truly great film starts with fantastic writing, and we’re thrilled to have Graham’s talent drive this film to its full potential as a highly entertaining crime drama,” said FilmNation Entertainment CEO Glen Basner. “We couldn’t think of a better home for this film than with the talented and likeminded team at Focus and can’t wait to gear up for yet another production during a time when our industry needs great films more than ever.”

Focus Features’ chairman Peter Kujawski said, “Like so many, we were blown away by Graham’s award-winning work in The Imitation Game and are thrilled to take part in his directorial debut. His storytelling talents seem limitless, and the caliber of artists he’s sewn together both behind and in front of the camera for The Outfit will undoubtedly bring this thriller to life in an exciting way.  We are looking forward to joining our friends at FilmNation in this endeavor.”

Said Moore, “If you’d told me years ago, when Johnathan and I were first dreaming up this story, that I’d get to direct my first film with a cast as exquisitely talented as Mark, Zoey, Dylan and Johnny, I’d have said you were nuts. And honestly, if you’d said that back then, you might have been. This film is such a deep labor of love for me and our whole team, and I could not ask for better partners than our friends at FilmNation and Focus.”

Graham Moore is a New York Times bestselling novelist and Academy Award-winning screenwriter. His novels (“The Holdout,” “The Last Days of Night,” “The Sherlockian”) have been published in 24 countries and translated into 19 languages. His script for The Imitation Game won an Oscar and a Writer’s Guild Award, and was nominated for Golden Globe and BAFTA awards.

FilmNation Entertainment and CAA Media Finance negotiated the deal with Focus Features on behalf of the filmmaking team. The film will employ industry standard COVID safety protocols.

Moore is represented by CAA and Felker Toczek. McClain is represented by Innovative Artists, Trademark Talent, and Myman Greenspan. Wasserstein is represented by Sasha Levites of Frankfurt Kurnit.  Rylance is represented by CAA and Peikoff and Mahan.  Deutch is represented by CAA, Management 360 and attorneys Gretchen Rush and Huy Nguyen. O’Brien is represented by WME, Principal Entertainment, and Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Adler, Feldman & Clark. Flynn is represented by CAA, United Agents, and Management 360. 

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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