NEON, the award-winning studio behind some of the most daring and celebrated films of the last nine years, announced that Harry Lawtey (“Industry”), Jodie Turner-Smith (Tron: Ares), Viola Prettejohn (The Testament of Ann Lee), and Burn Gorman (upcoming Frankenstein) have joined Chloe Okuno’s horror film Brides starring Olivia Cooke. Production is now underway in Budapest. NEON boarded North American rights to the film last year and will release the film theatrically. Focus International will release the film internationally, with FilmNation in some territories, with Manor Kill Media financing and Likely Story producing.
Okuno is directing the film which is based on her original screenplay, and producers include Anthony Bregman, Stefanie Azpiazu, and Greg Zuk for Likely Story. On a trip to Northern Italy in 1961, Sally Bishop (Cooke) and her husband find themselves stranded at a remote villa run by the enigmatic Vova (Lawtey), who presides over a household of beautiful, deathless women (Turner-Smith, Prettejohn) and their caretaker (Gorman). As Sally becomes entangled in their world of seduction, violence, and illusion, she begins to lose her grip on time and self, as her own dark transformation unfolds.
British actor Harry Lawtey is best known for starring as Robert Spearing in HBO/BBC’s critically acclaimed “Industry” for the first three seasons of the hit show and most recently led feature filmMr Burton as legendary actor Richard Burton, where we was nominated for Best Actor at the 2025 BAFTA Cymru awards for his performance. Other notable credits include Joker: Folie à Deux’,and the upcoming Under Salt Marsh and Billion Dollar Spy.
British actress Jodie Turner-Smith gained widespread recognition for her captivating performance in Queen & Slim, earning critical acclaim for her breakout role. Other notable TV and film credits include starring roles in Koganada’s After Yang, the Channel 5 series “Anne Boleyn,” Apple TV’s “Bad Monkey” and Noah Baumbach’s acclaimed feature White Noise. Currently, you can see her in Tron: Ares and the hit series “The Agency” which will return for season 2 in 2026.
Viola Prettejohn is a British actor, known for her role in the acclaimed hit series “The Crown,” portraying a young princess Elizabeth in the sixth season. Most recently, Viola can be seen in musical drama film The Testament of Ann Lee, which had its global debut at Venice Film Festival, running in competition, ahead of a cinematic release on Christmas Day 2025. Viola’s further TV credits include “Wolf Hall,” “The Witcher,” and “Counterpart.”
Burn Gorman is a distinguished character actor renowned for his transformative performances and collaborations with many of the world’s most visionary directors. He stars in Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming Frankenstein and will appear in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s highly anticipated untitled new feature. Other credits include Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises; Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice; Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim and Pinocchio; The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, and “Game of Thrones.”
Lawtey is represented by CAA, Hamilton Hodell, and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman, Smelkinson & Christopher. Turner-Smith is represented by UTA, 111 Media, The Lede Company, and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole. Prettejohn is represented by CAA, Insight Management & Production, and Circle Management and Production. Gorman is represented by B-Side Management and Verve Talent and Literary Agency.
Heading into awards season, five NEON films have been selected by their home countries as official selections for the Best International Feature Film category at the 98th Academy Awards. This includes, Jafar Panahi’s Palme d’Or winner, It Was Just An Accident, which was released Oct. 15; Joachim Trier’s Grand-Prix winner, Sentimental Value releasing on Nov. 7; Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Cannes prize winner, The Secret Agent releasing Nov. 26; Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice releasing Dec. 25; and Oliver Laxe’s Sirât. Upcoming releases include Shelby Oaks, Keeper, andArco with recent releases including Splitsville starring Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona, Sundance breakout film Together starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco, and Raoul Peck’s Orwell: 2+2=5.
About NEON
In only eight years, NEON has garnered 39 Academy Award® nominations (7 this year), 11 total wins (5 this year), including two Best Picture wins, and has grossed over $400M at the box office. The company continues to push boundaries and take creative risks on bold cinema such as Sean Baker’s Anora, which recently took home five Academy Awards® including Best Picture, and was released in theaters to the highest per-screen average of 2024; as well as Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite, which made history winning four Academy Awards®, becoming the first non-English-language film to claim Best Picture, and grossed over $54M at the domestic box office.
NEON has built an impressive streak winning the coveted Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, with six consecutive wins, including this most recent year’s winner It Was Just an Accident from Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, as well as Anora, Parasite, Anatomy of a Fall, Titane, and Triangle of Sadness. In 2024, NEON was named The Hollywood Reporter’s Independent Studio of the Year and received the Clio Award for Studio of the Year.
Recent NEON releases include Mike Flanagan’s The Life of Chuck and Osgood Perkins’ horror film The Monkey, both of which are based on the short stories by Stephen King. The Monkey marked NEON’s second biggest opening weekend at the box office following Perkins’ Longlegs, which is the highest grossing independent film of the year at $75 million domestically.
As a burgeoning leader in the production space, NEON’s recent and upcoming in-house productions include: David Robert Mitchell’s They Follow starring Maika Monroe; Michael Covino’s Splitsville starring Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona; the highly anticipated Boots Riley feature I Love Boosters starring Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, LaKeith Stanfield, Demi Moore, and Eiza González; The Wrong Girls starring Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat; Tilman Singer’s Cuckoo starring Hunter Schafer; and Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool. NEON’s international sales outfit handles the company’s in-house titles as well as third party projects.
NEON has amassed a library of over 120 films, with a noteworthy selection of Academy Award® nominated films including: Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig; Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days; Robot Dreams from Pablo Bergfeer; documentaries All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Fire of Love, Moonage Daydream, and Flee, which made history becoming the first film to score an impressive trifecta of Oscar® nominations; Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in The World; and Craig Gillespie’s I, Tonya.