Woody Harrelson will lead Summer of Roses, a new suspense drama from filmmaker Rick Alverson, with Caleb Landry Jones, Hannah Gross and Kaya Wilkins joining the cast ahead of filming in Sicily next month.Harrelson will play Thomas, a wealthy American expatriate whose life descends into what the production describes as an intoxicated free-fall. Plot details beyond that central premise have not been disclosed, leaving the scale of the story and the relationships between the principal characters under wraps.
Alverson will direct from a screenplay he co-wrote with Micah Jayne. The project brings the filmmaker back to feature directing after The Mountain, his 2018 drama starring Jeff Goldblum, which competed at the Venice Film Festival. His earlier films include Entertainment and The Comedy, both of which screened at Sundance.
Jones, Gross and Wilkins complete the principal cast announced so far. Jones previously appeared with Harrelson in Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, the 2017 drama in which Harrelson played police chief Bill Willoughby and Jones portrayed advertising salesman Red Welby.
The film also reunites Harrelson and Jones a decade after Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, though their new characters have not been described as sharing any connection. Producers have likewise withheld details about the period in which Summer of Roses is set and whether Sicily will stand for another location or appear as itself. The limited synopsis suggests the narrative will remain focused on Thomas and his deterioration, rather than on an ensemble story, but the production has not confirmed that interpretation or disclosed the event that triggers his downward spiral.
The Sicily shoot is scheduled to begin in October, although producers have not announced a precise start date, release timetable or distributor. The setting is expected to form a significant part of the film’s expatriate premise, but no additional locations or production schedule have been made public.
Summer of Roses is being produced by Benjamin Loeb and Magnus Castracane of Small Problems, Tyler Davidson and Drew Sykes of Low Spark Films, and Marco Alessi and Massimiliano Navarra of Dugong Films. Nick Grau, John Gray and Derrick Tseng are also producing, while Katie Sanders is attached as co-producer.
Alverson’s Made Bed and Harrelson and Ilya Bronchtein’s Children at Play are executive producing. Low Spark Films is financing the film in association with Gray’s It’s Not Pork and new-land. WME Independent is handling producer representation for the project.
The role adds another film to Harrelson’s current slate as he prepares for the 23 September premiere of Brothers, an eight-episode Apple TV comedy series co-starring Matthew McConaughey. The two actors play fictionalised versions of themselves whose long friendship is unsettled by the possibility that they may share a family connection. The first two episodes are due to launch together, followed by weekly releases.
Harrelson is also part of Quentin Dupieux’s Full Phil, an English-language comedy-drama featuring Kristen Stewart, Emma Mackey and Charlotte Le Bon. He has additionally completed work opposite Sam Rockwell in The Cackling of the Dodos, a crime film directed by Jason Bateman.
For Alverson, Summer of Roses marks a return to the unsettling character studies that have defined much of his feature work. The Mountain centred on a young man travelling with a doctor who performs lobotomies, while Entertainment followed a stand-up comedian on an increasingly bleak tour. Those films established Alverson’s preference for stories built around alienation, discomfort and psychological deterioration rather than conventional dramatic momentum.
Jones arrives on the project after a run of roles spanning independent films and larger productions. The actor won the best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021 for Nitram and has continued to move between leading and supporting parts. Gross has worked across film and television, including Mindhunter, while Wilkins performs music under the name Okay Kaya as well as acting.
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