Dev Patel's shopping-channel short is becoming a Tilman Singer feature

Before Monkey Man and A24's The Peasant, Dev Patel directed a 16-minute dark comedy about a woman who escapes a bad marriage into the glow of a home shopping channel. That short, Home Shopper, premiered at Sundance in 2018 with Sophie Kargman as Penny, Thomas Sadoski as her husband, and Armie Hammer as the on-air pitchman. Eight years later it is becoming a feature, and Patel is staying attached as an executive producer.

Tilman Singer, the German filmmaker behind Luz and Neon's Cuckoo, will direct from a screenplay by Ryan Farhoudi, who wrote the original short from a story by Leigh Whannell. Kate Mara plays Penny. Ashton Kutcher is Willy, the charismatic network host. Leslie Mann is Cybil, the co-host whose absence opens the seat Penny takes without telling her controlling husband, James. Billy Eichner is also cast; his role has not been announced. Architect is selling the film internationally ahead of the American Film Market, with CAA Media Finance on North American rights. The plan is to shoot in spring 2027. No release date yet.

The feature keeps the short's dark joke and stretches it. Penny's shopping obsession becomes a secret job. When James finds out, the household full of gadgets turns into a cover story for murder, and Cybil comes back looking for revenge while the body count rises. Dane and Cole Eckerle produce for Bad Grey with Aaron Bergman for Iconoclast. Patel's executive-producer partners include Jomon Thomas, who also produced the short and later Monkey Man, plus Geoff McLean and Natalya Pavchinskaya.

Most coverage will lead with Kutcher and Mann. The more interesting move is what the title already was: Patel's first time behind the camera, getting a second life after he proved the directing lane with Monkey Man and an India-shot A24 epic. Singer is directing the expansion. Patel is why the short exists, and the festival-block title now has a spring start date and buyers waiting at AFM.