“Josephine,” a psychological thriller starring Channing Tatum, Gemma Chan and newcomer Mason Reeves, has sold to Sumerian Pictures in a competitive seven-figure deal.
The film made its world premiere at this year’s Sundance, moving audience members to tears and becoming the festival’s first sensation. The heart-wrenching drama is a work of autobiographical fiction from writer-director Beth de Araújo about an 8-year-old who witnesses a rape in Golden State Park. De Araújo’s on-screen proxy is Reeves, whom she discovered by canvassing a farmer’s market in their native San Francisco.
“It was magic when her audition tape came in,” the filmmaker, named one of Variety’s 10 Directors to Watch for 2026, told Variety about Reeves. “She’s never acted before, but she’s an incredibly smart and emotionally intelligent person.”
Tatum and Chan play Josephine’s parents, who must navigate the little girl’s trauma amid the quest for justice for the survivor. The A-listers also served as producers on the project.
The emotional Park City premiere on Jan. 23 marked a full-circle experience for De Araújo, since she developed the material through the Sundance Institute’s directors’ lab. The director wiped away tears as she was welcomed to the stage at the Eccles with a standing ovation; the crowd continued to clap and cheer as the cast joined her with Tatum picking up his pint-sized co-star to swing her around with glee. Following Sundance, “Josephine” will make its international debut in competition at the Berlin Film Festival.
“It may sound strange to use the word ‘subtle’ to describe a film that opens with a brutal assault, and yet, de Araújo excels in constructing a universal human experience out of incredibly specific details (whether drawn from memory, research or her imagination),” Variety’s Peter Debruge wrote in his review of the film, where he also praised the actors for their powerful and nuanced performances.
“Josephine” is de Araújo’s second feature after the single-shot thriller, 2022’s “Soft & Quiet,” which debuted at SXSW and was subsequently acquired by Blumhouse. The film was released that fall by Momentum Pictures.
The film was represented for sales by CAA and WME.