Bleecker Street Acquires Rachel Zegler Thriller 'NDA'
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Bleecker Street acquired U.S. rights to "NDA," a psychological thriller currently in production in New York starring Rachel Zegler, Penn Badgley, and Oscar nominee Amy Ryan.
- Audrey Ellis Fox is directing her feature debut from her own original script, which was featured on the 2024 Black List and previously selected for the Women in Film X Black List Feature Residency in 2023.
- Zegler plays Dana, a woman enduring "a maddening day of mediation for an office harassment claim she filed" as a deadline forces her to weigh "the price of her silence, sanity, and the truth."
- Penn Badgley joins the cast fresh off his five-season run on Netflix's "You," where he also produced and made his directorial debut.
- Producers include Jared Ian Goldman, Keith Calder and Jess Wu Calder (SNOOT), Caitlin Gold (Tanbark Pictures), and Daniel Ginsberg (In The Cut Productions), with Bleecker Street CEO Kent Sanderson, Tyler DiNapoli, and Miranda King among the executive producers.
- Sanderson called the script "one of the best I've read" and said it aligns with the distributor's commitment to "bold, filmmaker-driven cinema."
Why it matters: A 2024 Black List script landing U.S. distribution before production wraps — anchored by a Golden Globe winner (Zegler), a streaming star (Badgley), and an Oscar nominee (Ryan) — reinforces Bleecker Street's identity as a buyer of mid-budget, talent-driven thrillers rather than franchise IP, while handing debut filmmaker Ellis Fox a theatrical platform rarely guaranteed to first-time directors.
