Lionsgate has acquired North American and UK distribution rights to Wet, the second narrative feature from Honey Boy director Alma Har’el, from Fifth Season and 193, a Legendary company. Deadline broke the deal on the evening of Wednesday 11 November, Los Angeles time, carrying statements from Lionsgate and Har’el; Variety and The Hollywood Reporter confirmed it the same evening. No price was disclosed.
The deal turns a market package into a studio title before a frame has been shot. Connor Storrie, the breakout of the hockey romance series Heated Rivalry, leads a cast with Rebecca Ferguson, Odessa A’zion, Javier Bardem, Rosalía and Lukas Haas. Production is due to begin in 2027 in the Dominican Republic, The Hollywood Reporter said.
Key facts
- Film: Wet, directed by Alma Har’el from a screenplay she wrote with Christian Stangeby
- Buyer: Lionsgate, for North America and the UK; sellers: Fifth Season and 193, a Legendary company
- Cast: Connor Storrie, Rebecca Ferguson, Odessa A’zion, Javier Bardem, Rosalía, Lukas Haas
- Production: due to start in 2027 in the Dominican Republic; Spain was the plan in August and September
- Price and release date: not disclosed
The deal
“The script and package for Wet are undeniable,” said Adam Fogelson, chair of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group. “With Alma at the helm, we cannot wait to get in the water with this unbelievably talented group of people, both in front of and behind the camera.” Scott O’Brien and MaryGrace Stephenson oversee the film for the studio. Christopher Davis and Lauren Bixby negotiated for Lionsgate; WME Independent, 193 and BALA negotiated for the filmmakers.
Fifth Season and 193 produce with Har’el, Christopher Leggett and Riva Marker for Linden Entertainment. Fifth Season’s Christopher Slager and Graham Taylor executive produce with Patrick Wachsberger and Ashley Stern for 193, and Jordan Backhus oversees creative for Fifth Season.
Har’el, who runs Zusa Pictures, framed the film as a response to the moment. “Lately, I’ve had to find humor in chaos and humanity in the most unpredictable situations,” she said, thanking Lionsgate “for embracing a film that speaks to this wild moment in time” and promising “a film that refuses to behave”.
From market package to studio deal
Wet surfaced in July, when Page Six reported that Bardem was in talks. In late August Deadline reported that Wachsberger’s 193 would handle international sales at the Toronto International Film Festival’s market, with Ferguson, Storrie and A’zion in very early discussions and Fifth Season due to finance and produce. Rosalía entered early talks in September for what Deadline said would be her biggest film role, after a cameo in Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain and Glory (2019) and a supporting part in the third season of HBO’s Euphoria.
Two things have changed since then. All six actors are now confirmed, where the September reports had them in talks with no deals done. And the shoot has moved: the hope in August and September was Spain, early in 2027.
The story is still under wraps. Deadline has described the script, which Har’el and Stangeby developed from his original spec, as a family drama in the vein of HBO’s Succession and Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or winner Triangle of Sadness, set on a superyacht. Stangeby has worked as an editor on short films and television series, including the Norwegian reality show Ex on the Beach Norge, according to Variety.
Har’el’s return to features
Honey Boy (2019), written by and starring Shia LaBeouf, played Sundance and Toronto and was released by Amazon Studios. It made Har’el the first woman to win the Directors Guild of America award for first-time feature film and earned her a Film Independent Spirit Award nomination for best director, her second Spirit nomination after the documentary Bombay Beach. Her other credits include the documentary LoveTrue, the Bob Dylan concert film Shadow Kingdom and Lady in the Lake, the Apple TV+ limited series with Natalie Portman and Lupita Nyong’o that she created, executive produced and directed in 2024.
In the same week, Lionsgate’s television side took US and UK rights to the Hungarian period series Rise of the Raven, Magnolia bought Jim Queen for the US and Cohen Media Group took the Venice Golden Lion winner Woman Unknown.
Our reading
Lionsgate is paying for a script, a director and a cast list, not a finished film, and it has taken only the two territories where it releases films itself. That suits 193, which keeps the rest of the world and can now sell it with a North American and UK release attached. The risk sits in the calendar. A cast this busy has to hold together through a 2027 shoot in a new location, and the first test is a confirmed start date.
Sources
- Deadline, Lionsgate acquires Alma Har’el’s Wet (exclusive, 11 November 2026)
- Variety, Lionsgate acquires Alma Har’el’s Wet (11 November 2026)
- The Hollywood Reporter, Wet acquired by Lionsgate (11 November 2026)
- Deadline, Alma Har’el’s Wet heads to TIFF market with A-list cast circling (August 2026)
- Deadline, Rosalía in early talks to join Wet (9 September 2026)