Kathryn Bigelow is bringing the action back to Netflix. The acclaimed director makes her return to filmmaking with thriller “House of Dynamite” about the White House response to a domestic missile attack.
The project was announced in 2024 with a Puck report confirming that “Jackie” and “Zero Day” scribe Noah Oppenheim was writing the original script. The film will be set in real-time and share a sensibility with Bigelow’s previous films “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Detroit,” and “The Hurt Locker.”
Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Jared Harris, Greta Lee, Gabriel Basso, Anthony Ramos, Tracy Letts, and Moses Ingram will star in “House of Dynamite,” along with Jonah Hauer-King, Jason Clarke, Kaitlyn Dever, Willa Fitzgerald, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Malachi Beasley, Kyle Allen, Francesca Carpanini, Brian Tee, Brittany O’Grady, Abubakr Ali, and recent IndieWire Honors winner Aminah Nieves of “1923” fame.
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The logline reads: “When a single, unattributed missile is launched at the United States, a race begins to determine who is responsible and how to respond.”
“House of Dynamite” will premiere in select theaters in October and on Netflix October 24. This is a milestone for both Bigelow and Netflix: Amid the push from filmmakers such as Rian Johnson and Greta Gerwig to have theatrical releases for features, Netflix is putting Bigelow’s on the big screen.
“House of Dynamite” is Bigelow’s first film since 2017’s “Detroit.” She was previously developing an adaptation of David Koepp’s novel “Aurora” also for Netflix, but the film was scrapped in 2022.
Nieves told IndieWire that none of the cast of “House of Dynamite” even knew the title of the film while in production. “It’s wild, because I don’t even know the name of the movie, and I don’t know when it’s coming out,” Nieves said. “All I can say is that it is completely different than what you’ve ever seen me do — which is not a lot — but still completely different and it was a very challenging role in regards to the time I spent with it and what it asked out of all of us.”
Bigelow was the first woman to win an Oscar for Best Director in 2009 with “The Hurt Locker.” Bigelow told IndieWire in 2017 while promoting “Detroit” that all of her films have “meaningful messaging,” especially about the government.
“At the end of the day, entertainment needs a shred of messaging to it. That’s a real motivator,” she said. “The genre element is captivating and attractive, both as a viewer and a filmmaker, but using it as a vehicle to move a conversation forward or at least shine a light on a conversation is extremely exciting. [‘Detroit’ was] challenging material, but so were ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ and ‘Hurt Locker.’ When you work in this space where entertainment alone is not enough, you’re using it as a delivery method for meaningful messaging, so you’re operating in a more journalistic mode. I think if it’s a good story and there’s significant personal commitment from the filmmaker, it will find a way to reach an audience.”
The iconic “Point Break” director added, “I’m always encouraged by the commitment and dedication of a filmmaker who lives in their material. Usually, that belief translates to the screen and therefore the audience. That’s what moves me — truth and integrity… there’s an integrity with respect to the choice of material by the filmmaker and how he or she realizes the story.”
“House of Dynamite” is produced by Bigelow, Oppenheim, and Greg Shapiro. Brian Bell and Sarah Bremner executive produce.
