Tony Gilroy’s Rogue One Sessions Inspired the Breathtaking, Nine-Composer Scale of Behemoth!
Written & Directed by TONY GILROY
Official AFI Festival Selection
★★★★★Anticipation Meter
Logistics & Metrics
Theatrical Release Window: December 4, 2026 Wide Release [Searchlight Pictures]
Official Film Length: 124 Minutes (2 hours and 4 minutes)
Genre Confluence: Drama / Character Study / Musical Biography
Current Freshness Matrix: 85% Rotten Tomatoes Consensus [34 Reviews]
Letterboxd Platform: 3.6 Stars
Official SYnopsis
Serving as a highly intimate, elegant, and complex love letter to the music of the movies, the narrative follows Alex Serian, a renowned and incredibly prolific cellist from a deeply rooted lineage of musicians. Returning to the sprawling, high-stakes creative landscape of Los Angeles to compose high-profile theatrical film scores, his artistic trajectory becomes a slippery, fractured descent into his own past. As he tries to balance complicated personal relationships, an intense professional workflow, and internal creative ghosts, the storyline tracks the raw, agonizing form and pressure of a tortured creative soul navigating the modern industry.
Official Trailer Selection
Production Crew
Director & Writer: Tony Gilroy
Director of Photography: Damián García
Lead Film Editor: John Gilroy
Master Score Architects: James Newton Howard, Alan Silvestri, Brandon Roberts, Michael Abels, Emily Bear, Lukas Frank, Michael Giacchino, Henry Jackman, Nami Melumad
Studio Production Canvas: Searchlight Pictures
Ensemble Registry
Pedro Pascal as Alex Serian
Olivia Wilde as Carol Spedding
Eva Victor as Nadia Hynes
Will Arnett as Andy Serian
Hank Azaria as Peter Serian
JoBeth Williams as Ginnie Serian
Alexa Swinton as Viviana Glenn
Matthew Lillard & Margarita Levieva as Supporting Ensemble
Ray's Thoughts
Fresh off his critically acclaimed and wildly successful work on the Star Wars series Andor, Tony Gilroy pivots back to his prestige roots with Behemoth!, a character study that shapes up to be a major awards-season darling. The film has been making waves on the festival circuit following its Centerpiece world premiere at the 64th New York Film Festival. It is now tracking toward its high-profile screening at the active AFI Fest, where Pedro Pascal is scheduled to appear alongside Gilroy for a special presentation.
Based on this newly unveiled trailer, the film promises a riveting, deeply layered portrait of a successful, third-generation session cellist undergoing an intense personal and professional crisis. The narrative structures a profound love letter to the music of the movies and the passionate craftsmen who bring those scores to life. In a historic cinema first, the production features an unprecedented collaboration of nine legendary composers affectionately dubbed "The BEHEMOTH! Collective." This powerhouse musical team includes Michael Abels, Emily Bear, Lukas Frank, Michael Giacchino, James Newton Howard, Henry Jackman, Nami Melumad, Brandon Roberts, and Alan Silvestri.
The project is written, directed, and produced by Tony Gilroy, who was initially inspired to explore this world back in 2016 while recording Giacchino's score forRogue One: A Star Wars Story. His direct, long-form experience supervising dozens of hours of original orchestral scoring across two seasons of Andor,alongside composers Nicholas Britell and Brandon Roberts, further fueled his desire to bring this hidden ecosystem to light. Gilroy's explicit creative intention is to give audiences a rare, unvarnished glimpse into the remarkable pressures, high-stakes blocking, and historic legacy of Hollywood's scoring stages. It serves as an ultimate tribute to artists performing at the absolute top of their game, pulling back the curtain on the massive, vital contributions that composers make to the medium of film.
As for the trailer itself, the footage showcases a phenomenal ensemble cast. Will Arnett comes into the fold fresh offIs This Thing On?, alongside Eva Victor, who recently wrote, directed, and starred in Sorry, Baby, and Olivia Wilde, who is hot off her work inThe Invite. The preview wisely provides only a selective glimpse of the broader narrative arc, which is a welcome choice. It lets the audience look forward to discovering the story naturally as it explores a sheltered corner of filmmaking that rarely receives theatrical real estate. The underlying tone registers as pitch-perfect, and the sheer scale and technical authenticity look incredibly impressive. To ground the production's musical density, the trailer even proudly features the world-class symphony venue coordinates of the Reneee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall located in Costa Mesa, California.
Behemoth! looks poised to be a major critical force this winter, driven by its immaculate cast and a wonderfully nuanced, subtle lead performance from Pedro Pascal. The tracking buzz from early festival dispatches is already turning heads across the industry. It is genuinely exciting to see Gilroy temporarily pivot away from massive, effects-heavy genre properties to mount an intimate, adult-minded character study that flexes his dramatic muscles. While the industry frequently treats Gilroy as an elite creative "fixer" brought in to reshape troubled blockbusters, it is incredibly rewarding to see him secure the freedom to direct an original, deeply personal vision, marking a magnificent return to the signature dramatic territory of his Oscar-nominated masterwork, Michael Clayton. Searchlight Pictures is scheduled to release the film wide on December 4, 2026.
Final Verdict
★★★★★Anticipation Meter
Tony Gilroy's Behemoth!positions itself as an exceptionally elegant, highly sophisticated festival standout that looks poised to completely dominate the winter awards-season conversation. By pairing Gilroy's razor-sharp, text-driven direction with a magnificent performance from Pedro Pascal and a historically unprecedented nine-composer score architecture, the trailer footage demonstrates an absolute command over psychological depth and technical scale. Masterfully blending intimate familial trauma with a grand, authentic love letter to Hollywood's musical history, this upcoming Searchlight Pictures launch asserts itself as a vital, premier theatrical milestone at the absolute top of our tracking radar.
Score Secrets & Trivia
The production features an extraordinary, historically unprecedented musical pipeline, combining the talents of nine legendary Hollywood composers, including James Newton Howard, Alan Silvestri, and Michael Giacchino, to weave a singular score.
The project experienced several massive casting shuffles during active development, with Oscar Isaac originally attached to star before exiting, and David Harbour stepping down late in the tracking timeline due to fatigue from the final season of Stranger Things.
Director Tony Gilroy previously collaborated closely with score architect James Newton Howard across each of his three previous standalone directorial efforts: Michael Clayton, Duplicity, and The Bourne Legacy.
The feature held its high-profile world premiere on October 2, 2026, operating as the highly coveted center-stage centerpiece selection of the 64th New York Film Festival.
Production Information
Director & Screenwriter: Tony Gilroy
Director of Photography: Damian Garcia
Lead Film Editor: John Gilroy
Principal Filming Window: October 27, 2025 to January 23, 2026
Primary Filming Locations: On-Location Urban Settings of Los Angeles, California
Studio Production Houses: Chi-Fou-Mi Productions, Artemis Productions, Samsa Film
Global Theatrical Distributor: Searchlight Pictures
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