Sony Buys Michelle Yeoh Thriller 'The Surgeon' At TIFF — SkimNews
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- Sony Pictures acquired North American rights plus Latin America, Italy, China, and Hong Kong to Michelle Yeoh thriller "The Surgeon" out of TIFF after multiple competitive bids, coming the same week Universal and Blumhouse Atomic Monster outbid Sony on IFC's "River."
- The Surgeon stars Michelle Yeoh as an expert surgeon abducted and forced to operate on a mysterious patient, who then deploys 35 years of surgical expertise against her captors in a fight for survival; the film also stars Martin Freeman, Laurie Davidson, Yuri Kolokolnikov, and Joseph Mydell.
- Director Dr. Roshan Sethi is a practicing radiation oncologist at a Boston hospital who drew on his medical background for the film; he previously directed the 2025 romantic comedy "A Nice Indian Boy" and co-created the Fox medical series "The Resident."
- "The Surgeon" earned a 100% fresh Rotten Tomatoes score from 11 TIFF reviews, and is produced by Thunder Road's John Wick franchise team — Basil Iwanyk, Erica Lee, and Diarmaid McGrath — alongside Tango's Tim Headington, Lia Buman, and Neil Shah.
- The deal was negotiated by WME on behalf of the filmmakers, with 193 (a Legendary company) handling international sales rights; on the Sony side, the deal was led by Joe Matukewicz, President of Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions.
- Michelle Yeoh appeared in a second TIFF official selection this year, Bai Xue's "It's My Time," and won Best Actress at the 2023 Oscars for "Everything Everywhere All at Once."
Why it matters: Sony's acquisition of a 100% Rotten Tomatoes thriller fronted by an Oscar winner signals real bidding appetite at TIFF after years of slow acquisition markets, giving Thunder Road — the John Wick producers — another high-profile action property and positioning Sethi, a working physician, as a distinctive new directing voice in genre film.
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