Searchlight Pictures is dreaming of Jonathan Majors. The studio has acquired the actor’s body-building feature Magazine Dreams, which earned strong reviews last month at Sundance.
Majors plays Killian Maddox, a man determined to make it in the world of body building even as he faces a number of struggles, from dealing with feelings of alienation, anger issues and looking after his ailing grandfather.
Elijah Bynum wrote and directed the feature. He previously made Hot Summer Nights, starring Timothée Chalamet and Maika Monroe, which was released by A24 after a South by Southwest debut.
“We are very proud to bring Elijah’s powerful film to the world,” said Searchlight presidents Matthew Greenfield and David Greenbaum. “Jonathan’s tour-de-force performance, both physically and emotionally, affected us in profound ways.”
Haley Bennett, Taylour Paige and Mike O’Hear also star in Magazine Dreams, which is produced by Jennifer Fox, Dan Gilroy and Jeffrey Soros.
Majors last appeared in the Korean War drama Devotion and stars as the villain Kang in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, due out Feb. 17, and is antagonist Damian in Creed III, which bows March 3.
The project, filmed over 24 days, was an intense undertaking for Majors, who spent more than a year training for the transformative role.
“Sometimes Jonathan would break down after a scene and we would need 10 minutes. We didn’t say much,” Bynum previously told The Hollywood Reporter. “I usually just kind of hugged him and let him kind of come back to Earth and then he would pull himself together and we’d move on to the next.”
CAA Media Finance brokered the deal with Searchlight’s Paul Hoffman and Chan Phung. Release plans will be revealed later.
Read More: World News | Entertainment News | Celeb News
Hollywood
