Daniel Roher Sets ‘Paradox Inc.’ at Universal After Directing ‘Tuner’

Back in April, a 2026 gem came in the form of Daniel Roher’s “Tuner”—a small-scale indie that quietly premiered at Telluride last year and made only $6M during its box office run.

Starring Leo Woodall and Dustin Hoffman, the crime thriller follows Niki White, a gifted piano tuner whose extraordinary hearing draws him into the world of high-end safecracking. I’m a sucker for heist-movie suspense, and this one has it in spades, with an inventive focus on music and sound design. It goes on about 10 minutes too long, but the rest of the film shouldn’t be ignored.

With that out of the way, Roher, an Oscar winner for directing the excellent documentary “Navalny,” has set up a feature film at Lord Miller, the production company of Oscar-winning filmmakers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.

Roher will direct and co-write “Paradox Inc” for Universal, an adaptation of Forrest Brazeal’s forthcoming debut novel of the same name, which Brazeal will adapt for the screen.

The sci-fi story centers on a scrappy startup and a dysfunctional Big Tech giant racing to create the first consumer time machine—with control of reality at stake, though the technology may not behave as expected.

Oh, and this isn’t even Roher’s next film—he recently shot “Positano,” an upcoming high-stakes romantic caper for Netflix. It stars Matthew McConaughey and Zoe Saldaña as two rival jewel thieves forced to team up. Toni Collette is also part of the ensemble.

Suffice it to say, watch out for Roher. He’s slowly branching away from nonfiction and turning into a Hollywood director, with Netflix’s “Positano” and now Universal’s “Paradox Inc,” which is eyeing a 2027 production.