This morning, Bleecker Street announced its 2026 slate, there’s “Victorian Psycho,” Alex Gibney’s “Musk,” and lookee here — Mike Leigh’s next film, still untitled, was listed.
Bleecker released Leigh’s latest film, “Hard Truths,” in 2024. He’s one of the great living filmmakers — Oscar-nominated five times for writing and twice for directing (“Secrets & Lies,” “Vera Drake”) — and he doesn’t want to retire. And why should he?
It helps that “Hard Truths” was a great film, despite having been rejected by Cannes, Venice, and Telluride (Leigh’s words, not mine). Not to mention the four-year journey during which Leigh struggled to raise the money needed to make it.
What’s even more baffling is that “Hard Truths” only cost a few million to make, yet that didn’t stop Netflix from rejecting Leigh’s pitch in 2021. It’s been a long road for this film, and it does look like the iconic British filmmaker might have had the last laugh.
There are still no casting or plot details for Leigh’s latest. It was shot a few months ago.
What seems to scare distributors about funding Leigh is that he’s notorious for not having a script to work with and for not revealing anything about what the film will be, exploring and arriving at the story organically. The writing comes relatively late in the process, the result of a close collaboration with his cast.
While we’re at, I’ll list the indisputable Leigh films, the ones I’ve kept thinking of all these years. You have to start with his Palme d’Or winning “Secrets & Lies,” and the indescribable “Naked.” His other career highlights: “Life is Sweet,” “Another Year,” “Hard Truths,” “Happy Go Lucky,” “All or Nothing,” “Topsy Turvy.”