B.J. Novak’s quest for a story turns into a quest for revenge in Focus Features’ Vengeance. Described as a “darkly comic thriller,” Vengeance finds Novak starring as a journalist who believes he’s stumbled into a town full of conspiracy theorists who are convinced the death of a girl he sort of dated wasn’t an accident…it was murder!
Writer/actor B.J. Novak (The Office) stars in and makes his feature film directorial with Vengeance. The cast also includes Issa Rae (Insecure), Ashton Kutcher (The Ranch), Boyd Holbrook (Narcos), J. Smith-Cameron (Succession), and Dove Cameron (Schmigadoon!). Jason Blum, Adam Hendricks, and Greg Gilreath served as producers.
BJ Novak recently spoke with Variety about his directorial debut.
“It’s so easy to misinterpret our connections these days, and it’s also easy to fall in love with someone after they’re out of your life, when you can obsess over their photos and your own memories and regrets. I started there which led me to this idea: what if you were expected to avenge the death of a someone you barely knew?” said Novak. “I wanted to put the character somewhere he was really lost, living with a family in the place he least understood. And then when I looked at a map, Texas was just staring at me. It has this almost mythological quality. From the Alamo onwards, vengeance is in Texas’s DNA. I found that Texas was full of contradictions, especially in that it feels like the most intimidating place and yet also the friendliest.”
Vengeance opens in theaters on Friday, July 29, 2022.
