Ben Stiller hasn’t directed a feature since 2015’s “Zoolander 2” — a misstep he’d probably prefer to bury in the “never happened” drawer.
Stiller’s absence from film, however, hasn’t been one of inactivity. Over the past several years, he has quietly reinvented himself as one of television’s most efficient and unexpectedly daring directors, most notably with Apple’s “Severance,” a series that cemented his ability to juggle scale, tone, and risk in ways his comedies only hinted at.
Stiller recently confirmed he won’t be helming the upcoming third season of “Severance,” freeing him for something bigger: a return to features. He’s now prepping an Amazon/MGM-produced untitled WWII “survival” film, eyeing a spring 2026 shoot. Though Stiller hasn’t publicly revealed details, industry chatter suggests the project is “The Lost Airman.”
Originally announced in 2018 as a Jake Gyllenhaal-led vehicle (without Stiller attached), the film is based on Seth Meyerowitz’s book, which sources tell me Stiller reportedly became interested in after being sent a copy by “Severance” producer John Lesher.
The story, drawn from Obama-era declassified records, recounts the harrowing ordeal of Arthur Meyerowitz, an American turret gunner whose B-24 was shot down over Vichy France in 1943. While hiding in the French countryside, Meyerowitz was sheltered by Marcel Talliander, the founder of the famed Morhange resistance group, and spent six months narrowly evading the Gestapo. His eventual escape relied on a complex plan involving R.F.W. Cleaver, one of the war’s most decorated British pilots.
Gyllenhaal, who has had this as a passion project for nearly a decade, remains attached as producer and I’m told, might still star. At one point, he even considered directing it himself, but with Stiller now in the chair, the project appears to have regained momentum.
For all the jokes about “Zoolander 2,” Stiller’s résumé as a filmmaker is respectable: “Reality Bites,” “The Cable Guy,” “Zoolander,” “Tropic Thunder,” “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” A WWII survival thriller would mark a new turn.
The theatrical version runs 108 minutes, so we're talking a nearly 2-hour-10-minute cut of a movie that works because it's lean, and I'm not sure anyone needs that.