Weapons: Julia Garner joins Josh Brolin in Barbarian director’s next film

Last year, New Line Cinema went all-in on a partnership with Barbarian (watch it HERE) writer/director Zach Cregger and the film’s producers at BoulderLight Pictures. New Line came out the winner in a bidding war over Cregger’s next film, a mysterious horror project called Weapons. They signed a first look deal with BoulderLight Pictures, tasking the company with developing high concept genre projects for them. And they gave a greenlight to the thriller Companion, produced by BoulderLight and Cregger. Last May, it was announced that Pedro Pascal of The Last of Us had signed on to star in Weapons – but Pascal had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with his Marvel movie Fantastic Four, so he has since been replaced by Dune, Avengers: Infinity War, and No Country for Old Men star Josh Brolin. Now The Hollywood Reporter has shared the news that Brolin is being joined in the cast by Julia Garner, who is best known for her work on the series Ozark (for which she won three Emmy awards).

Garner is currently in production on the Wolf Man reboot that’s coming from Universal and Blumhouse, and she stars in the Platinum Dunes thriller Apartment 7A (which may or may not be a prequel to Rosemary’s Baby), a project that has been in post-production since 2022. She was also recently cast to play a female Silver Surfer in Fantastic Four alongside Pedro Pascal. Clearly her Silver Surfer has a very different shooting schedule than Pascal’s Reed Richards, which is understandable. She’s sure to have a lot less screen time.

When Pascal was still attached to Weapons, it was announced that he would be joined in the cast by Renate Reinsve, who starred in the Oscar-nominated film The Worst Person in the World. It’s not clear if Reinsve is still involved in the project or if she moved on when Pascal did. She’s not being mentioned in reports of Garner’s casting.

Details on the characters Brolin and Garner will be playing are being kept under wraps. In fact, most details about Weapons are shrouded in mystery. It has been said that it’s “an interrelated, multistory horror epic” that’s tonally in the vein of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia, and The Hollywood Reporter adds that the story revolves around the disappearance of high schoolers in a small town.

Cregger wrote the Weapons screenplay and will be directing the film. He’s also producing it with Roy Lee and Miri Yoon of Vertigo and J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules of BoulderLight Pictures.

New Line Cinema is paying Cregger a sum in the eight figure range to make this movie. When they won the bidding war over the rights, New Line’s president and CCO Richard Brener released the following statement: “Zach proved with Barbarian that he can create a visceral theatrical experience for audiences and that he commands every tool in the filmmaker toolbelt. We couldn’t be happier that he, Roy [Lee] and Miri [Yoon], and J.D. [Lifshitz]and Rafi [Margules] chose New Line to be the home of his next film, and hope it is the first of many to come.“

Are you a fan of Barbarian, and are you looking forward to seeing what Cregger is going to do with Weapons? Are you glad Josh Brolin and Julia Garner have been cast in the project? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.