NEON debuted a new trailer crime thriller Paper Tigerfrom the screenwriter and director James Gray (The Lost City of Z, Ad Astra), starring Adam Driver (Father Mother Sister Brother), Miles Teller (Michael), y Scarlett Johansson (Jurassic World Rebirth).
Set in Queens, New York, in 1986, the plot centers on Irwin Pearl (Teller), an unemployed engineer trying to support his family. His older brother, Gary (Driver), a former New York police officer, involves him in an apparently lucrative scheme involving Russian criminals dedicated to dumping oil around the Gowanus Canal. What seems like a shortcut to middle-class stability ends up putting Irwin, his wife Hester (Johansson) – who is going through her own conflicts – and their children in grave danger.
Gray says the story is loosely based on his own family's encounter with the Russian mafia in New York in the 1980s.
Take a look at the trailer at the end of the note.
NEON acquired the distribution rights to Paper Tiger last May, prior to the project's world premiere at Cannes 2026. This week it will be screened at the New York Film Festival (NYFF).
OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS:
“It is a tense, gritty story that revolves around two brothers pursuing the American dream, only to become embroiled in a plot that is too good to be true. As they try to make their way in an increasingly dangerous world of corruption and violence, they find themselves brutally terrorized, along with their family, by the Russian mafia. Their bond begins to weaken, and betrayal, once completely unthinkable, now becomes all too possible.”
Rodrigo Teixeira produces the feature film with his company RT Features, and his collaborator Anthony Katagas of AK Productions, along with Raffaella Leone, Gary Farkas, Marco Perego, Carlo Salem, and Andrea Bucko. Executive producers are Lee Broda, Jeff Rice, Riccardo Maddalosso, and Emille Salveson.
The film marks a new collaboration between Johansson and Driver, after starring in the drama Marriage Story.
The Gowanus setting played a central role in Gray's conception of the film. Because the neighborhood has changed dramatically since the 1980s, the production team filmed in other locations and digitally reconstructed the industrial landscape of 1986. Gray conceives of the polluted canal as both a physical place and a reflection of the moral degradation that slowly consumes the Pearl family.
Paper Gray was shot on 2-perf 35mm film by the director of photography Joaquín Baca-Asay. The 35mm 2-perf format is also known as Techniscope. To this day, it remains a more economical option for filmmakers who choose to shoot on film and prefer to use the classic 35mm format instead of the smaller 16mm.
Filming took place in New Jersey.
Paper Tiger will have a limited release in select US theaters on November 13, followed by a national release on November 20in the middle of awards season.
Trailer:
Source: https://cine3.com/trailer-paper-tiger-adam-driver-miles-teller-scarlett-johansson/
