Kaitlyn Santa Juana Hits the Road: 'Final Destination' Star Leads Pop-Punk Dramedy 'The Jam Van'
Kaitlyn Santa Juana, who broke through in the 2025 horror hit Final Destination Bloodlines, will lead the road-trip dramedy The Jam Van — her first feature since that film grossed $318 million globally for Warner Bros. Deadline reported the casting on 14 August 2026.
Maclean Fish and Nikki Roumel join Santa Juana at the front of the cast, with Madison MacIsaac, Cassandra Potenza and Dom Bergeron rounding out the lead ensemble. Production is set to begin in Winnipeg, Manitoba, at the end of August.
The Jam Van follows a dysfunctional pop-punk band navigating long roads, long silences and messy relationships on their way to what could be their big break — or their last show for good. The premise sits squarely in a familiar tradition of music-driven road films, where the van is both transport and pressure cooker.
Alec Carlos makes his directorial debut on the film, having co-written the screenplay with producer Peter Roumeliotis. The producing team includes Jordan Connor and Kyle Guerrero of Inventive Entertainment, alongside Helen Roumeliotis and Santa Juana herself. Michael Ng and Allen Roman serve as executive producers.
On the music side, the composing duo Blitz//Berlin are attached to score the film, and Peter Roumeliotis will serve as music supervisor — a natural fit for a story steeped in pop-punk culture, where the soundtrack is half the point.
The Jam Van is the fifth feature under the Popternative Pictures banner. The label's slate includes The Cure starring David Dastmalchian, the Bigfoot thriller Sawtooth Mountain, and the upcoming drama Sometimes I Believe in Ghosts starring Brenna D'Amico.
For Santa Juana, the project marks a deliberate pivot. Final Destination Bloodlines put her in front of a global horror audience; The Jam Van trades supernatural terror for the quieter, stranger dread of sharing a van with people you love and can barely stand. Whether the film finds its audience will depend on the usual chain of decisions — a distributor picking it up, a release date landing in the right corridor, a marketing budget that reaches the right crowd. Those calls have not yet been made public.
The Winnipeg shoot gives the production access to Canadian tax incentives and a regional crew base that has hosted a steady volume of film and television work in recent years. Cameras roll at month's end.
