James Gray is officially back behind the camera with Paper Tiger, his first feature in nearly four years — and like any film worth waiting for, this one comes with a few notable changes. The domestic crime drama, set to begin filming next month in New Jersey, has undergone a casting reshuffle: Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller have stepped in to replace Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong. Adam Driver, however, remains onboard, offering a throughline between what was and what is.
Paper Tiger follows two brothers chasing the 'American Dream', only to get tangled in a criminal scheme that leads them straight into the jaws of the Russian mafia. As their lives spiral into violence and fear, the film promises a story of fractured loyalties and hard-earned reckoning — classic Gray territory, mixing intimate drama with grand stakes.
The film is based on an original screenplay by Gray, and while the initial idea was to reunite with his Armageddon Time stars (Hathaway and Strong), scheduling conflicts sent casting in a new direction. Hathaway, for instance, is reportedly tied up with Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, and may start filming The Devil Wears Prada 2 this summer. Driver, meanwhile, adds yet another prestige director to his growing résumé, though rumours around the troubled production of Michael Mann’s Heat 2 — which also stars Driver — cast some doubt on that project’s future.
At 56, Gray remains one of American cinema’s more quietly enduring auteurs — a throwback stylist whose films, from Two Lovers to The Lost City of Z, have found more devoted followings in Cannes than California.
