Focus Features has scheduled BJ Novak’s Vengeance, the feature directorial debut from Novak, to be released on Friday, July 29. Novak directed and wrote the film that is under the Blumhouse Productions banner.
Vengeance will follow Ben Manalowitz (BJ Novak), a journalist and podcaster who heads down to West Texas from New York City to investigate the mysterious death of a girl he was hooking up with. The cast of Vengeance includes Ashton Kutcher, Issa Rae, Boyd Holbrook, Dove Cameron, and J. Smith-Cameron.
Vengeance is produced by Jason Blum, Greg Gilreath, and Adam Hendricks, with B.J. Novak, Christopher H. Warner, and Leigh Kilton-Smith serving as executive producers. Divide/Conquer also produced Vengeance.
Fans will recognize Novak mainly from his role on The Office, where he played Ryan for all nine seasons. He began the series as a temp, went through a series of career changes, and experienced an on-and-off relationship with the always-complicated Kelly Kapoor (Mindy Kaling). In addition, Novak has appeared in several films, including Inglorious Basterds, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, The Founder, and Saving Mr. Banks.
As a writer, Novak has also had a successful career as an author with four novels, including The Man Who Invented the Calendar, One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories, The Book With No Pictures, and The Alphabet Book With No Pictures. He also wrote, directed, and executive produced the half-hour anthological series, The Premise, which premiered on FX in 2021. Currently, he is writing and executive producing a new comedy series for HBO Max titled Young People.
Unfortunately, Novak’s Vengeance is going to have a tough time at the box office as it is coming out in theaters the same day as DC’s Black Adam, starring Dwayne Johnson. Still, maybe many of The Office‘s fans will show up to support Novak in his directorial debut.
