Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lily James Star Greedy People’

After making a promising directorial debut with the 2021 western “Old Henry,” filmmaker Potsy Ponciroli returns with the twisted black comedy thriller “Greedy People,” which harkens back to classic neo-noirs like Sam Raimi’s “A Simple Plan” while he the peculiarities of a film by the Coen brothers. The original script, by Mike Vukadinovich (Showtime’s “Kidding”), piles on the storylines, but never at the expense of logic or motivation, and boasts a macabre sense of humor with sharp dialogue. “I read almost 150 scripts in the ten months after we finished ‘Old Henry,’ and only a few of them made a lasting impression. This was one of those scripts. Dark comedy is so tricky because sometimes people don’t know what to think about it. Is it a drama, a thriller or a comedy? And that’s fine, because when that shift happens, you see that the film doesn’t fit into one box. It becomes kind of a moving target. You start in one place and end in another,” says Ponciroli.

Vukadinovich’s tonally daring original screenplay centers on the eccentric residents of a small, picturesque island town, who are confronted with a sensational murder and the discovery of a million dollars next to the body. Through a series of increasingly bad decisions that hilariously turn the once peaceful community upside down, the various characters all try to stay alive as the body count rises. “It’s dark and it’s funny, so you’re laughing one minute, and then it gets nasty and brutal. This was a very different film from ‘Old Henry’, which was kind of an homage to older Western films, and with ‘Greedy People’ I really wanted to do something that was completely the opposite.”

Featuring an all-star cast including Lily James, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Himesh Patel, Tim Blake Nelson, Uzo Aduba, Jim Gaffigan, Simon Rex, Nina Arianda and Joey Lauren Adams, the film is fortified in every department with morally flexible performances that are in perfect sync with the increasingly deadly plot developments. “The casting was fun. It revolved around the Terry character, because he’s so abrasive, but you still kind of like him and you want to ride with him. And the idea with Joe Gordon-Levitt was that he could have a lot of fun with the role and do something completely different. Once he came on board, all the dominoes started falling, and everyone else joined in.”

“Greedy People” was produced by Zack Schiller (“Men in Black: International”), Dylan Sellers (“Palm Springs”), Shannon Houchins (“Old Henry”), Chris Parker (“Palm Springs”), David Boies (“ Midnight Sun”) and Kevin M. Brennan (“Still the King”). “I met Dylan Sellers at a General, and I told him about the script, gave it to him on Thursday, and he called me on Friday and said he loved it and wanted to make it. On Sunday night he said he wanted to finance it. It’s the fastest I’ve ever seen anything come together. You can prepare and push a movie for years and it never happens, but this just snowballed and stuff
putting the pieces together.”

With numerous projects in various stages of development, Ponciroli is wasting no time in getting behind the camera again. “I’m trying to film something this winter, so I’m in the process of casting that now and hopefully it will work out. I am also working with Escape Artists on a project that we would like to launch next June. We just have to wait and see which one falls next.”

Verve is handling domestic sales of “Greedy People,” while Mister Smith Entertainment is handling international sales.