Research checked against Netflix’s official release-date post, Deadline’s report, prior production/casting coverage, and publisher background on Alex North’s novel. Key source points: Netflix confirmed the August 28 release and first-look photos; AGBO’s Angela Russo-Otstot framed the film as a father-son story inside a thriller; the novel was optioned years before publication; filming took place in New Jersey in 2025.
Netflix has set Aug. 28, 2026, for the global release of The Whisper Man, a crime thriller led by Robert De Niro, Adam Scott and Michelle Monaghan, giving the streamer a late-summer title built around a bestselling novel, a prestige cast and a serial-killer mystery with family trauma at its center. The date arrived with first-look images showing De Niro, Scott, Monaghan and young actor Acston Luca Porto in the adaptation of Alex North’s 2019 thriller.
The film follows a widowed crime writer whose eight-year-old son is abducted. He turns to his estranged father, a retired police detective, and the search exposes a link to an old case involving a convicted killer known as the Whisper Man. Netflix describes the project as a mystery thriller with an ominous tone, while AGBO chief creative officer Angela Russo-Otstot called it a “poignant and complex story of father and sons.”
James Ashcroft directs from a screenplay by Ben Jacoby and Chase Palmer. The cast includes Hamish Linklater, Owen Teague, Will Brill and Porto, with Michael Keaton also tied to the project through earlier casting news. For Netflix, the film extends its relationship with AGBO, the company founded by Anthony and Joe Russo, following several high-profile collaborations.
The project has had a long path to the screen. AGBO optioned the film rights in 2018, before North’s novel reached bookstores. The book later became an instant New York Times bestseller, with Celadon Books positioning it as a story about fathers, sons, grief and a serial killer stalking a small town. North has said the idea began with a widowed father struggling to connect with his grieving son, then grew into a crime story with eerie elements.
Production took place in New Jersey from April to June 2025, with locations reported in Plainfield, North Plainfield, Westfield, Scotch Plains, Paterson and Montclair. That schedule places the film deep into post-production ahead of its August debut, giving Netflix time to mount a full campaign around its cast, source material and Ashcroft’s recent horror credentials.
