Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Netflix AI Thriller Adds Jeff Daniels and Joel Edgerton

Jeff Daniels, Joel Edgerton, Caleb McLaughlin, and Nnamdi Asomugha have joined the cast of the untitled Netflix AI thriller directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. They join Rachel McAdams, who was announced when Netflix acquired the project in October 2025.

The Full Cast

Daniels, known for "The Newsroom" and "Dumb and Dumber," brings decades of dramatic range to the ensemble. Edgerton, who has spent the past decade alternating between leading roles and character work in titles including "Loving" and "The Great Gatsby," adds another internationally recognized name. McLaughlin, who played Lucas Sinclair across all four seasons of "Stranger Things," is one of the highest profile Netflix alumni rejoining the platform. Asomugha appeared in "Sylvie's Love" and "Bruised" before becoming one of the more distinctive dramatic actors working in independent film.

Behind the Script

Gordon-Levitt wrote the screenplay with Kieran Fitzgerald. Story credit is shared by both writers alongside Natasha Lyonne, whose own AI film studio Asteria is built around licensed training data. Rian Johnson and Ram Bergman produce through their T-Street banner, the same company behind "Knives Out" and its sequels.

Gordon-Levitt also produces alongside Fitzgerald. The film was developed within the T-Street pipeline before Netflix entered as buyer.

What Netflix Acquired

Netflix paid for a fully assembled package: director, script, and lead talent in place. That structure is described by trade publications as a studio package acquisition, a category Netflix reserves for projects where the creative team and financing arrive together rather than in stages.

Production is set for summer 2026. The plot remains undisclosed. Filming will take place in Belgrade, Serbia, and Montenegro.

Gordon-Levitt on the Subject He Is Filming

Gordon-Levitt has spent several years building a documented public argument about AI and creative labor. He has testified before state legislatures, spoken at the UN Internet Governance Forum, and written for major publications on the need for compensation frameworks that pay creators when their work trains AI models. His position is that AI draws on human generated material and the people behind that material deserve a share of the revenue.

His full record of AI advocacy dates to at least 2023, when he proposed a "residual economy" model for AI training compensation. The untitled film is, in that sense, a continuation of the same argument by different means. Filmmakers working with AI tools today can access generation and image-to-video capabilities through AI FILMS Studio, independent of the industry negotiations the film's subject matter touches.

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Sources

Deadline | The Hollywood Reporter | Variety