Bart Layton’s Los Angeles-set heist thriller Crime 101 rolled out a fresh push this week with a European gala screening in London, putting Chris Hemsworth, Halle Berry and Mark Ruffalo on the same red carpet ahead of the film’s global theatrical release in mid-February. Hemsworth and Ruffalo reunite for their fifth feature together, this time as a thief and the detective who thinks he has finally found the pattern behind a string of jewel robberies linked to California’s 101 freeway.
Hemsworth plays Mike Davis, a meticulous operator who “acts fast and without violence,” a detail the actor highlighted while describing the role as a shift away from the swagger and muscle memory he has leaned on in big action franchises. He said he boarded the project first, then texted Ruffalo after reading the script, recalling Ruffalo’s reaction: “Oh my God, this is one of the greatest things I’ve read.”
Berry stars as Sharon, an insurance broker pulled into Davis’ orbit as he eyes a final, career-defining score, with Ruffalo’s Lou Lubesnick tightening the net. Berry framed Sharon’s workplace frustration—passed over for promotion—as a personal point of connection, describing the pressure women feel when “the world is trying to diminish me… or tell me that my time is up,” adding, “I just refuse to accept that.”
The film adapts Don Winslow’s novella and keeps Layton in crime territory he has approached from different angles before, from the documentary The Imposter to the fact-based heist drama American Animals. Here, he writes and directs a larger-scale studio thriller with a supporting cast that includes Barry Keoghan, Monica Barbaro, Corey Hawkins, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Nick Nolte. In the U.K., the distributor has set early premium-format showings on February 11 and 12 ahead of the wide release on February 13.
