Paul Giamatti to Star in Mystery Horror Boutique for XYZ Films

Paul Giamatti heads to an eerie English seaside town in XYZ’s mystery horror Boutique.

Paul Giamatti to Star in Mystery Horror Boutique

for XYZ Films

Paul Giamatti is heading to the English seaside — and straight into something sinister.

XYZ Films has announced that Giamatti will star in the mystery horror Boutique, written and directed by Jim Gavin, creator of AMC’s Lodge 49. Production is set to begin in the UK in Summer 2026, marking Gavin’s feature directorial debut and reuniting him with Touchy Feely Films, the production company behind Lodge 49.

In Boutique, Giamatti plays Calvin, an American tourist who travels to an eerie English seaside town that once inspired his favorite reclusive author. Instead of literary pilgrimage and quiet reflection, Calvin becomes entangled in a murderous secret society operating beneath the town’s picturesque façade.

Giamatti will also produce through Touchy Feely Films alongside Dan Carey. Producers include James Harris and Mark Lane for Tea Shop Productions and Guy Danella for XYZ Films, which is financing the project. Jacob Jaffke will serve as executive producer. XYZ will handle world sales, with UTA co-representing domestic rights.

The film adds another genre entry to Giamatti’s eclectic résumé. The acclaimed actor is known for layered performances in Sideways, American Splendor, HBO’s John Adams, and Billions, earning awards recognition throughout his career, including a Golden Globe win and Academy Award nomination for The Holdovers. Recent credits include Paramount+’s Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and a Golden Globe–nominated turn in Black Mirror. He will next appear opposite Julianne Moore in an upcoming feature directed by Jesse Eisenberg.

Giamatti expressed enthusiasm for the project, calling it “scary, funny, bizarre, strangely moving,” and praising Gavin’s script as one of the best he’s read.

XYZ’s Guy Danella echoed that sentiment, noting the studio’s excitement in bringing Giamatti’s “singular talents to new genre territories.”

Boutique continues XYZ’s aggressive genre slate. The company recently wrapped Banquet and has a lineup that includes Over Your Dead Body (wide theatrical release April 24 via IFC), He Bled Neon, Kill Me, and the exorcism thriller The Ritual starring Al Pacino and Dan Stevens.

If the premise holds — literary obsession, seaside isolation, and a secret society lurking just out of sight — Boutique could lean into the kind of British folk-tinged dread that thrives on atmosphere before it turns the knife.

Production begins this summer.