Zach Cregger, the visionary director behind the unsettling hit Barbarian, is set to unleash his next chilling creation: the mystery-horror film, Weapons. This upcoming flick has already sent shockwaves through Hollywood, largely due to the intense bidding war ignited by Cregger's phenomenal script.
The screenplay for Weapons sparked a fierce competition among major studios, including Netflix, New Line Cinema, TriStar Pictures, and Universal Pictures/Monkeypaw Productions. Ultimately, New Line Cinema emerged victorious, securing the coveted distribution rights in a staggering $38 million deal.
The script's undeniable allure even led to a dramatic fallout for Jordan Peele of Monkeypaw Productions. Reportedly, Peele was so incensed by losing Weapons that he fired his longtime managers, Joel Zadak and Peter Principato.
With a script widely whispered to be one of the finest horror spec scripts penned in the last two decades, anticipation for Weapons is, understandably, very high.
Courtesy of IMAX, we now have an intense new clip that provides an idea of what to expect when the film hits theaters this August.
Speaking to Empire earlier this month, Cregger stated, "[It's] a fun movie. It's funny, it's scary, it's inviting. It's not a grim, morose slog. And yet the story it tells is really [frick]ed up. … [It's] creatively ambitious, [and] a lot bigger and weirder than Barbarian...Barbarian was an exploration of social themes; [it] was me looking at the world around me. This is more an exploration of my own personal shit, for lack of a better word. Weapons is me looking within, and working on myself."
Weapons (2025) Synopsis: From New Line Cinema and Zach Cregger, the wholly original mind behind Barbarian, comes a new horror/thriller: Weapons.
When all but one child from the same class mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time, a community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance.
The film stars Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Cary Christopher, with Benedict Wong, and Amy Madigan.
Cregger directs from his own screenplay, and also produces alongside Roy Lee, Miri Yoon, J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules, with Michelle Morrissey and Josh Brolin executive producing. The filmmaker’s creative team behind the camera includes director of photography Larkin Seiple, production designer Tom Hammock, editor Joe Murphy and costume designer Trish Sommerville. The music is by Ryan Holladay, Hays Holladay and Zach Cregger.
New Line Cinema Presents a Subconscious/Vertigo Entertainment/Boulderlight Pictures Production, a Zach Cregger Film, Weapons. It will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, and released in theaters and IMAX nationwide on August 8, 2025, and internationally beginning in August 2025.