Canadian director Matt Johnson has cast fellow Canadian and Stranger Things actor Finn Wolfhard in his new film project.
Johnson is a director, writer, and actor who became known in Canada’s low-budget indie film scene in the early 2010s.
Since then, his films have enjoyed mainstream and worldwide success, writes Film News Blitz’s Arwen Lehmann.
For a filmmaker so fiercely independent and rule-averse, Johnson’s success is no small feat.
The movie, so far only known as ‘Untitled Matt Johnson Film’, will follow the real story of a Vice Canada editor who recruited employees into a transnational drug-smuggling syndicate.
Wolfhard will play the journalist who broke the story.
American independent film production company NEON has bought the worldwide rights and has plans to release the film in the U.S.
The news of Johnson’s new project has arrived ahead of the release of his fifth film, Tony, an Anthony Bourdain biopic
When will ‘Tony’ be released?
Johnson’s newest film, Tony, will be released in U.S. cinemas in August of this year.
A European and UK theatrical release is yet to be confirmed.
The movie is a biographical retelling of iconic and beloved celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain’s younger years.
Tony follows 19-year-old Bourdain, played by The Holdovers star Dominic Sessa, during his time working in a Cape Cod restaurant in Provincetown.
The movie is loosely based on the stories told by Bourdain himself in his 2000 memoir Kitchen Confidential, where he recounts personal reflections and gives commentary on the restaurant industry.
Sessa joins a stacked cast of actors, such as Antonio Banderas, who plays the restaurant owner and Emilia Jones, who plays Bourdain’s love interest.
What other movies has Johnson made?
Johnson made his directorial debut with his student film The Dirties in 2013, which won the Best Narrative Feature category at the Slamdance Film Festival.
His sophomore film, Operation Avalanche, released in 2016, is a found footage style mockumentary about two CIA agents who uncover NASA’s conspiracy to fake the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing.
An article by IndieWire said that the film would “restore your faith in found footage movies”, cementing Johnson’s stature as a respected indie filmmaker.
However, Johnson made heads turn in the mainstream film industry with the release of his third movie, BlackBerry.
The biopic about the Canadian smartphone, as well as the company’s subsequent demise, was Johnson’s first taste of mainstream success in the U.S.
The film was co-funded by the Canadian government funding agency Telefilm Canada and a Canadian production company, XYZ Films.
Global acclaim
The film achieved global acclaim and won numerous film festival awards in North America.
The movie also won a record-breaking 14 awards at the Canadian Screen Awards in 2024.
Johnson explained on the Q with Tom Power podcast that it was important for the film to be produced and made in Canada in order for him to maintain complete creative control.
He said that many Canadian production companies cannot afford to fund Canadian films exclusively and thus have to reach out to American sales agencies to finish the budgets.
“There’s so many strings attached to that money,” the director said.
His popularity was compounded by the launch of his fourth film, Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie last year.
The film, based on a web series created by Johnson and Jay McCarrol, is a surrealist comedy that follows a wannabe band who travel back in time to the year 2008.
This film was also primarily funded by the Canadian government.
What makes Johnson’s directing style so unique?
A semi-consistent throughline across Johnson’s filmography is his mixture of traditional filmic narrative with improvisational, guerrilla filmmaking techniques.
All of Johnson’s released films thus far, besides BlackBerry, are mostly filmed through real-life stunts or real interactions with the public that are then edited in post-production to create a coherent storyline.
In Operation Avalanche, Johnson and his small crew infiltrated NASA’s headquarters in Texas under the guise of shooting a student documentary.
NASA then gave the filmmakers access to their facilities, launch grounds and computers that were used in the 1960s.
More recently, in Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie, Johnson and co-star McCarrol successfully snuck wire cutters and parachutes into the CN tower in Toronto to film a stunt where they skydive from the tower’s EdgeWalk.
Dangerous stunts
“Let’s show people at their best,” Johnson said when explaining why they filmed the shocked or concerned reactions of passersby when he and his co-lead, McCarrol, conducted dangerous stunts in the streets of Toronto for their Nirvanna The Band web series and movie.
Johnson also believes that real people are the best actors.
In another interview on the Q with Tom Power podcast, the filmmaker said that he prefers working with unwitting members of the public who do not know that they are a part of a movie scene.
In an interview on the YMS YouTube channel, Johnson described his decision to use a low-budget approach to filmmaking as a financial “necessity” in his early career.
He also attributes this to Canada’s severe lack of resources for filmmakers compared to those from the U.S.
However, this indie aesthetic has been and will likely remain a constant in the filmmaker’s catalogue.
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