John Turturro’s crime thriller “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York” has sold to Sony Pictures Classics a month after its Sundance Film Festival premiere.
A release date hasn’t been set but SPC is eyeing a theatrical debut in the fall.
Written and directed by Noah Segan, “Pickpocket” follows Harry (Turturro), a veteran of the craft who struggles to keep up with the changing times — phones are trackable, wallets rarely have cash and guns are hiding in plain sight. When a theft goes awry, Harry embarks on a high-stakes race against time through the Big Apple. Giancarlo Esposito, Tatiana Maslany, Steve Buscemi, Karina Arroyave, Victoria Moroles, Will Price and Jamie Lee Curtis round out the cast.
“Noah Segan’s ‘The Only Living Pickpocket’ is one of the great New York movies ever featuring John Turturro in the finest performance of his career, and it’s a glorious entertainment,” Sony Pictures Classics said in a statement. “It will be a big hit this fall with audiences everywhere.”
In Variety’s review, critic Tomris Laffly shared a similar sentiment and praised “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York” as an “unapologetically local love letter to the Big Apple and its less-illustrious denizens that New York deserves.” She added that “Pickpocket’ feels like a new, minor-key New York classic.”
This is Sony Pictures Classics’ third acquisition out of this year’s Sundance following the crowd-pleasing love story “Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty” and drama “Bedford Park.”
Segan is best known for working with Rian Johnson on such films as “Looper,” “Brick” and the “Knives Out” trilogy. His last directorial effort was 2022’s “Blood Relatives,” a horror comedy about Jewish vampires. “Pickpocket” was produced by Johnson’s T-Street Productions, which backed a prior Sundance darling in Chloe Domont’s psychological thriller “Fair Play,” which sold to Netflix for a staggering $20 million in 2023.
Segan called Sony Pictures Classics co-presidents Michael Barker and Tom Bernard “legends in their own right” and thanked them for “iconically supporting the sort of sincerity and care we’ve put into the film.”
“As a multi-generational New Yorker, capturing the soul and energy of our city was a requirement for ‘The Only Living Pickpocket in New York.’ No one embodies that vibe more than John Turturro,” Segan said in a statement. “Working alongside his legendary friends and colleagues like Steve Buscemi and Giancarlo Esposito, actors who have defined New York Cinema throughout their careers, gave us the authenticity that New York demands. Alongside our crew, we managed to make discoveries in our own backyard, through fellowship and shared history. It is a great honor to partner with Sony Pictures Classics in bringing the movie to audiences.”