Cailee Spaeny And Drew Starkey To Star In ‘Deep Cuts’ Adaptation At A24
EXCLUSIVE: After working with the two on multiple projects, A24 is now looking to team up two of the towns biggest rising stars as sources tell Deadline Civil War star Cailee Spaeny and Queer star Drew Starkey have come on to the studio’s adaptation of the Holly Brickley novel Deep Cuts. Sean Durkin is on board to write and direct the feature.
Set in the 2000s, Deep Cuts is a love story about two music-obsessed twenty-somethings navigating the messy realities of ambition, belonging and adulthood over the course of an era-defining decade.
The adaptation was initially going to star Saorise Ronan and Austin Butler but following scheduling conflicts, both stars had to drop out and the studio quickly pivoted to pair of the town’s busiest young actors. Production will kick off February 2026.
Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, and producer Blake Mills, who recently received his third nomination for Producer of the Year, will create original music.
Eli Bush, Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie will produce through their central banner. Durkin will also produce along with Anthony Katagas, Jordan Tappis and A24. Brickley will serve as an executive producer.
Deep Cuts was released on February 25, 2025, was selected as an Indie Next Pick, an Apple Debut Pick, a Today Spring Pick, a Bookseller’s Book of the Month, a Jordy’s Book Club Pick, and was named a Best New Book by People and Barnes & Noble, as well as an Amazon Best Book of the Year Discovery Read.
Spaeny has started to become the A24 darling as this would be her fourth leading role in an A24 production, following her acclaimed performances in Civil War and Priscilla — for which she received a Golden Globe nomination and won the Best Actress award at the Venice Film Festival. She is also set to reunite with A24 this spring, starring opposite Charles Melton, Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan in the highly anticipated, new season of the Emmy winning series Beef on Netflix.
Besides all of the work she has done for A24, she also recently starred in the 20th Century pic Alien: Romulus, helping relaunch the iconic franchise with a sequel in the works. She most recently starred in Wake Up Dead Man, the latest chapter in the Knives Out series for Netflix. The film also stars Daniel Craig and is currently in theaters and is set to bow on Netflix on Dec. 12.
While he hasn’t done as many A24 pics as Spaeny, Starkey got his own big break after his critically acclaimed role in the A24 pic Queer, which also starred Craig. Next up he has the Apple series Lucky, which also stars Anya Taylor-Joy and was recently set to star opposite Margaret Qualley and Michael Shannon in the Jeff Nichols pic King Snake.
Spaeny is repped by WME, Range and Hansen Jacobson, Starkey is represented by Gersh, Brillstein, and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman, Smelkinson, & Christopher. Durkin is represented by UTA and Entertainment 360 and Brickley is represented by CAA.
