Oscar winning filmmaker Florian Zeller has pulled together an impressive cast for his next psychological thriller and now Paul Dano is officially part of the lineup.
The project is Bunker, Zeller’s follow up to his acclaimed films The Father and The Son, and it is already shaping up to be one of the most intriguing films on the way for 2026.
Dano has has a string powerful performances in There Will Be Blood, The Batman, Prisoners, and The Fabelmans, and he recently stepped into a very different world with The Wizard of the Kremlin.
Hollywood has been celebrating the actor ever since Quentin Tarantino lost his mind and said that he was “the worst fucking actor in SAG” which only fueled the affection and admiration around him.
Now he joins a cast led by Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, along with Stephen Graham and Patrick Schwarzenegger.
Filming on Bunker is already underway in Madrid and London. The movie digs into the psychological spiral of a family whose lives are slowly disrupted by a strange construction project a bunker commissioned by a powerful tech mogul.
Zeller has built a reputation for guiding actors toward unforgettable performances and with this story he aims for another intense character driven experience.
The filmmaker shared his excitement about bringing Dano into the ensemble. “We are thrilled to welcome Paul Dano to the cast. From Little Miss Sunshine to There Will Be Blood, Paul has consistently impressed me as an actor. He possesses an extraordinary singularity — something genuinely unique — and in that sense, he is truly irreplaceable.”
Production is being handled by Blue Morning Pictures under Mediawan and MOD Producciones, with international sales through FilmNation Entertainment and domestic rights managed by CAA Media Finance and WME Independent.
Zeller offered special praise producers Mariano Cohn and Gaston Duprat, whose work helped spark the creative direction of the film. He said he considers them “incredibly inventive and talented filmmakers, for whom (he holds) a deep artistic admiration.” He added that “Their film ‘El hombre de al lado’ was a source of inspiration for me while writing Bunker.”
Bunker is sure to end up being a gripping psychological thriller with the potential for standout performances across the board.
