Jerry Bruckheimer

Source: Michael Yada / ©A.M.P.A.S.

Jerry Bruckheimer

EXCLUSIVE: Apple Original Films is reuniting with F1 producer Jerry Bruckheimer on Razorblade Tears, a feature that the Oscar-winning filmmaker duo Travon Free and Martin Roe will co-write and direct.

Free and Roe co-directed Two Distant Strangers, the winner of the best live-action short film Academy Award in 2021, as well as the 2023 HBO Max sports documentary BS High.

The studio has not shared plot details for the Razorblade Tears project, however S. A. Cosby’s 2021 novel of the same name follows two fathers and former convicts who team up to avenge the murder of their gay married sons, coming to terms with their own biases in the process.

Bruckheimer and Apple are coming off the global theatrical success of F1, which is nearing the $630m mark at the worldwide box office and will debut on Apple TV on December 12. Bruckheimer and F1 director Joseph Kosinski are also partnering with Apple Original Films on an upcoming UFO project.

Apple is ramping up its originals pipeline. In an upcoming interview with Screen, co-head of worldwide video Zack Van Amburg said the company will debut a new original nearly every week in 2026.

As previously reported on Screen, the feature development slate includes Justin Lin directing Sydney Sweeney in a remake of the 1964 action comedy That Man From Rio. Jean-Paul Belmondo and Francoise Dorléac starred in the original from TF1 Studio about a young man on military leave who rescues his abducted girlfriend from Rio de Janeiro.

Also on the roster is a remake of Morten Tyldum’s 2011 Norwegian box office smash Headhunters, which Mark Wahlberg will star in and produce. The original dark comedy from Yellow Bird, AS Norge, and Friland Film was adapted from the novel by Jo Nesbo and centres on a recruitment executive who steals art on the side.

Screen has also learned that Apple has acquired the crime thriller spec script Dead Set from Lee Eisenberg, who wrote Apple TV series Lessons In Chemistry starring Brie Larson and WeCrashed with Jared Leto, and Gordon Smith, whose credits include Apple TV’s show Pluribus that debuts on the service on November 8.

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