Black Bear Lands Greta Lee Starrer ‘Jonah’; Director Danya Taymor Reteaming With Rachel Bonds On Adaptation Of Her Off-Broadway Play

EXCLUSIVE: Black Bear is set to distribute and produce Jonah, a feature adaptation of the acclaimed Off-Broadway play by Rachel Bonds, to star Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Greta Lee (Past Lives). After directing the stage production, which earned both an Obie Award and a Lucille Lortel Award for performance, and a Drama League Award nomination, Tony Award winner Danya Taymor is set to get behind the camera for her feature directorial debut. Cooper Hoffman, the Golden Globe nominee fresh off Gregg Araki’s I Want Your Sex, is also set to star, as are Lee’s Late Fame co-star Edmund Donovan and Hagan Oliveras, who reprises the titular role he held Off-Broadway. Production is set to begin in September. In Jonah, when a flood of memories forces Ana (Lee) to revisit the defining relationships of her life, she must confront the truth behind the stories she’s long told herself. Spanning two decades and three transformative relationships, the film is billed as a haunting portrait of love, trauma, and resilience that explores how we make sense of the experiences that shape us. Watch on Deadline The show world premiered at the Laura Pels Theatre in New York City in February 2024, wrapping up a limited engagement the following month. Bonds adapted the screenplay, with Oscar winner Tom McCarthy and Rae Baron set to produce via Slow Pony. Holding worldwide rights, Black Bear will release the film domestically and introduce the project to international buyers at TIFF. Michael Heimler, Black Bear’s President of Productions and Operations, commented: “Jonah is the rare story that feels both deeply personal and universally resonant. Rachel and Danya have crafted an unforgettable exploration of memory, intimacy, and survival that is as emotionally powerful as it is cinematic. Greta Lee is the perfect actor to bring Ana’s journey to life, and we’re thrilled to welcome this extraordinary film to Black Bear’s slate.” Rae Baron, Head of Development and Production at Slow Pony, shared: “I first saw Jonah during its Off-Broadway run and immediately felt it had to be a film. Rachel’s writing is extraordinarily grounded and accessible yet specific, and the play’s construction is as ambitious as it is moving — Danya Taymor’s signature. We’ve been determined to bring Jonah to the screen ever since, and we’re thrilled to be partnering with Black Bear and the wonderful Greta Lee and Cooper Hoffman to bring Rachel and Danya’s vision to audiences worldwide.” A screenwriter and writer for scripted podcasts, as well as a playwright, Bonds won the Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award for Jonah in 2024. Also a recipient of the L. Arnold Weissberger Award, the Sky Cooper Prize, and the Heideman Award, her other recent projects include The Lonely Few, with music and lyrics by Zoe Sarnak, which ran at MCC Theater and The Geffen Playhouse, and the Audible scripted series The Boar’s Nest, starring Mandy Moore. She is repped by CAA, Curate, and Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz. Two years ago, Taymor became the youngest woman ever to win the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for her work on The Outsiders. She most recently earned a Tony nom for Best Direction of a Play for John Proctor Is the Villain, starring Sadie Sink, which is now in development as a feature at Universal with Taymor attached to direct. Her upcoming theater work includes directing the Off-Broadway revival of Spring Awakening and Born in the Dirt at Lincoln Center Theater, where she reunites with Tony-nominated playwright Kimberly Belflower. She is repped by CAA and Jackoway Austen Tyerman. Lee earned Golden Globe and Independent Spirit Award nominations for her breakthrough performance in Celine Song’s Academy Award-nominated A24 romantic drama Past Lives. Currently, she can be seen starring opposite Wagner Moura in The Last House, the Netflix horror film from Louis Leterrier that brought the streamer its fifth-biggest original film opening of the year. She’s also in theaters at the moment with Late Fame, the lauded Magnolia Pictures drama from Kent Jones, where she stars opposite Willem Dafoe. Upcoming, she has the third film in the animated Spider-Verse franchise, as well as The Eyes Are the Best Part, an adaptation of the Monika Kim horror bestseller that she’s tackling for Searchlight as writer-director. She is repped by UTA, Entertainment 360, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman. Black Bear, the decorated indie studio behind titles like Train Dreams and Sing Sing, launched its U.S. distribution business in July 2025, expanding a multinational theatrical business that was already an industry leader in the U.K., Ireland, and Canada, where subsidiary Elevation Pictures is the top independent theatrical distributor. Next up, on Oct. 23, they’re set to release Wicker, a genre-bending comedic fable starring Olivia Colman, Alexander Skarsgård, and Peter Dinklage. Hoffman is repped by WME; Donovan by UTA, Entertainment 360, and Lichter Grossman Nichols; Oliveras by Artists & Representatives and Mara Entertainment; and Slow Pony by Gersh. Gersh and UTA Independent Film Group repped the filmmakers in the negotiation with Black Bear.