Opus Trailer Featuring Ayo Edebiri and John Malkovich

A24 has shared the official trailer for Opus, a “pop thriller” from writer and director Mark Anthony Green that features original music by Nile Rodgers.

In the film, a young writer (Ayo Edebiri) is invited to the remote compound of a legendary pop star (John Malkovich) who mysteriously disappeared thirty years ago. Surrounded by the star’s cult of sycophants and intoxicated journalists, she finds herself in the middle of his twisted plan.

Opus Trailer Featuring Ayo Edebiri and John Malkovich

Opus will premiere in the Midnight section at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival on January 27 and will be released on March 14, 2025. The film has been rated R for violent content including a grisly image, language, sexual material and brief graphic nudity.

The movie stars Ayo Edebiri (Inside Out 2, The Bear), John Malkovich (Ripley, The New Look), Juliette Lewis (Yellowjackets), Murray Bartlett (The Last of Us), Amber Midthunder (Prey), Stephanie Suganami, Young Mazino, and Tatanka Means.

YouTube video

Mark Anthony Green is a writer and director whose short Trapeze, U.S.A. won awards at several festivals. He began writing for GQ when he was 19 and joined the publication full time as a writer and editor after graduating from Morehouse College.

The Sundance Film Festival describes the film in the following way: “A young writer is invited to the remote compound of a legendary pop star who mysteriously disappeared 30 years ago. Surrounded by the star’s cult of sycophants and intoxicated journalists, she finds herself in the middle of his twisted plan.

Ayo Edebiri poster for Opus

“Mark Anthony Green’s feature debut is a bold, fun, and flashy pop-horror. Ayo Edebiri delivers as the meek yet hungry journalist Ariel — her unique charm radiating alongside a distinct final-girl prescience. John Malkovich is effervescent and hypnotic as Moretti, a deified global phenomenon making a dramatically malevolent reintroduction.

“Amidst eye-catching, synthy musical numbers and the enigmatic desert compound, the facade of civility gradually erodes between the pair, revealing the underbelly of a tense, psychosocial game of cat and mouse. Opus offers an electric, clever indictment of the literal cult of celebrity, presenting characters and dangers within a symphonic ambience — giving way to a foreboding ease through which power is generated and embedded within pop culture.

John Malkovich poster

With a run time of 103 minutes, the film’s producers include Collin Creighton, Brad Weston, Poppy Hanks, Jelani Johnson, Mark Anthony Green and Josh Bachove.

Robert Pyzocha is the production designer, Tommy Maddox-Upshaw is the director of photography, Ernie Gilbert is the editor and Shirley Kurata is the costume designer. The casting was by Angelique Midthunder.

Juliette Lewis poster
Murray Bartlett poster
Amber Midthunder poster
Stephanie Suganami poster
Young Mazino poster
Tony Hale poster