Luc Besson Rescued Caleb Landry Jones's Five-Year Passion Project. It Just Premiered at Locarno.
Caleb Landry Jones spent five years trying to get Down the Arm of God funded. Luc Besson ended the wait.
The film had its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland on 12 August 2026, according to Variety. Besson stepped in with financing through his EuropaCorp banner after watching Jones struggle to secure money while the two worked together on the 2025 horror film Dracula.
Jones co-wrote the screenplay with director Peter Brunner, who previously directed him in the 2018 drama To the Night. The film stars Jones as Nick, a pastor who arrives in a small Texas town and confronts a homelessness crisis unfolding in plain sight. Roosevelt Film Lab, listed alongside EuropaCorp as a production company on IMDb, describes the story as following a young pastor through a harsh winter as his mission to help takes shape.
The project began as a story about forgiveness between father and son and drew partly on true events. Its creators describe it as "a conversation starter, not an advocacy film," according to The Hollywood Reporter.
What sets the film apart is its casting. The filmmakers recruited real homeless people in Texas to appear in the production. That decision drew criticism from some who raised concerns about disrespect or what they characterised as "white saviorism," Variety reports. The production's own history gives the debate a heavier weight: over the five years it took to reach production, many of the homeless individuals who had agreed to participate died before filming could begin. The finished film is dedicated to them.
Jones, best known for his roles in Get Out, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and Nitram, has spoken about the long road to financing throughout the project's development. Variety first reported on the collaboration in February 2025, when the film was still seeking its path to screens.
The Locarno premiere marks the end of that road — and the beginning of the next one, as the film enters the festival circuit seeking distribution.
