EXCLUSIVE: The story of Apple and Skydance empowering youth The Path of the Warrior Childbased on the 2017 novel by Jocko Willink, has the 14-year-old Belfast The breakthrough came with Jude Hill in the lead role, and three-time Emmy nominee Linda Cardellini (Dead to me) for a role.
Hill plays Marc, a self-doubting boy who is bullied and struggles to do a single pull-up, while Cardellini plays Marc’s mother Sarah. As we first reported, Chris Pratt also stars in the McG-directed film.
In The Path of the Warrior ChildMarc’s uncle Jake (Pratt), an elite Navy SEAL, is injured on a deployment and moves in with his sister for rehab. When he discovers that his 13-year-old nephew is having academic, social and physical problems, Jake takes on a new mission: using his three months of SEAL Team training to help the youth discover his inner warrior.
We were the first to report on the Cannes package when Pratt and McG came on board and also reported on the $80-$85 million worldwide deal Skydance has with Apple, where the company has a first-look deal. The film is being produced by Skydance’s David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Don Granger, along with McG and Mary Viola for Wonderland Sound and Pratt for Indivisible Productions. Additional producers include Ben Everard for Everard Entertainment and Willink. Will Staples (Without regret) adapted the screenplay.
Cardellini just finished starring alongside Christina Applegate in Liz Feldman’s acclaimed black comedy. Dead to mewhich ran for three seasons and earned her two Emmy nominations, among other awards. She was also a producer on that series and will soon be working with Feldman again. No good deeda new black comedy from Feldman, first announced in 2022 and also starring Ray Romano, Lisa Kudrow and Luke Wilson. Cardellini will soon appear alongside Ben Stiller in David Gordon Green’s comedy nutcrackera project we first reported on and which is set to open this year’s Toronto Film Festival. She is also the female lead alongside Vince Vaughn in NonnasStephen Chbosky’s upcoming comedy for Fifth Season and 1Community, which we announced.
Hill made his film debut as Buddy, the young leading man in Kenneth Branagh’s Oscar-nominated and BAFTA-winning Belfast — a coming-of-age drama that explores a boy’s coming-of-age experience in late 1960s Northern Ireland amidst the conflict known as The Troubles. He received numerous accolades for his performance alongside Judi Dench, Jamie Dornan, Ciaran Hinds and Caitriona Balfe, including Best Newcomer at the Critics Choice Awards and Best Newcomer at the Hollywood Critics Association Awards. He has since worked with Branagh again on his Agatha Christie adaptation A ghost in VeniceHill will next be seen alongside Nicole Kidman, Gael García Bernal and Matthew Macfadyen in the Amazon MGM Studios thriller Holland, Michigan.
Other upcoming Apple Original films produced by Skydance Media include genre-benders The Gorge with Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy; Guy Ritchie’s Fountain of Youthwith Natalie Portman and John Krasinski; and the action-adventure film picture May Day with Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh in the lead.
Cardellini is repped by CAA and Jackoway Austen Tyerman, Hill is repped by Berwick & Kovacik, UTA and Markham, Froggatt and Irwin.
