Josh Duhamel Boards Psychological Horror Thriller ‘Speak’ From Joe Carnahan and Lorenzo di Bonaventura

Josh Duhamel will star in Speak, a 1994-set psychological horror thriller centered on a sinister vintage ventriloquist dummy.

Josh Duhamel is heading into psychological horror with Speak, a new genre thriller built around a vintage ventriloquist dummy and a family’s increasingly disturbing descent into terror.

According to Deadline, the Transformers actor has joined the project, which will be directed by John Kissack from a screenplay co-written by Kissack, Joe Carnahan and Casey Giltner. Principal photography is scheduled to begin in October, with the filmmakers targeting a worldwide release in 2027.

CAA Media Finance arranged financing and is co-representing U.S. distribution rights. Twenty-Nine Palms Entertainment will introduce Speak to international buyers at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival Market.

Set in 1994, Speak centers on a 12-year-old boy whose father begins behaving in increasingly frightening and erratic ways after inheriting a vintage ventriloquist dummy. As disturbing incidents begin disrupting their isolated home, the boy is forced to determine whether his father’s transformation has a psychological explanation or whether something supernatural has entered their lives.

The period setting is particularly connected to Kissack’s approach to the material. The filmmaker cited growing up during the 1990s reading Stephen King and watching horror movies on VHS as influences on the project, while describing the film as a character-driven combination of that era’s horror nostalgia and contemporary genre filmmaking.

“I grew up in the ’90s reading Stephen King and watching VHS horror movies,” Kissack said. “Speak fuses the nostalgia of that era with an approach that’s elevated and character driven.”

Kissack previously directed Everfall, a horror film set within the world of competitive figure skating. Speak places him alongside several established action and genre filmmakers behind the camera.

Lorenzo di Bonaventura is producing through Di Bonaventura Pictures alongside Carnahan, Marvin Neil, Liz Paulson and Kay Cardinal. Di Bonaventura previously worked with Duhamel on the Transformers franchise and Netflix’s Jupiter’s Legacy, while he and Carnahan have collaborated on multiple projects.

Carnahan, whose credits include The Grey, also praised Kissack’s approach to the project, pointing to what he described as the director’s “singular vision” for the film.

Neil is producing through Inaugural Entertainment, the Los Angeles-based studio he recently launched with film financier Kevin Weisberg. The company previously worked with Carnahan on Not Without Hope. Twenty-Nine Palms Entertainment’s Edoardo Bussi serves as an executive producer.

For Twenty-Nine Palms, Speak will become one of the projects the London-based production and international sales company takes to TIFF as it continues building a slate centered on high-concept commercial features. Bussi launched the company in 2025.

The premise also puts Speak into a long horror tradition of ventriloquist dummies and seemingly inanimate objects becoming focal points for psychological and supernatural fear. The film’s central mystery, however, appears designed to keep the source of that terror uncertain, with the son’s perspective blurring the distinction between his father’s deteriorating behavior and the possibility that the inherited dummy has brought something else into their home.

With Duhamel now attached and financing in place, Speak is expected to begin production this October ahead of its planned 2027 release. Twenty-Nine Palms and CAA Media Finance will begin presenting the project to buyers at TIFF.