Cineverse Acquires 'Eugene The Marine': A Giallo-Inspired Thriller Starring Scott Glenn
Cineverse has picked up domestic distribution rights to Eugene The Marine, a Super 16mm thriller starring Scott Glenn as a retired Marine fighting eviction and hunting a serial killer, with a theatrical release planned for select cities in autumn 2026 (Deadline).
The film comes from director and co-writer Hank Bedford, who wrote the screenplay with Cesare Gagliardoni. It stars Glenn alongside Jim Gaffigan, Annette O'Toole, Shioli Kutsuna, and Jeremy Bobb — the last playing Glenn's hostile son, who is trying to force his father out of his home. As the old Marine opens up to new friends, a mysterious killer begins murdering them one by one (Deadline).
What gives the project its texture is its stylistic lineage. Bedford shot the film on Super 16mm — a grainy, tactile film format that gives the image a raw, vintage feel — and drew inspiration from the giallo tradition: the stylised Italian murder mysteries of the 1960s and 1970s, known for their lurid colour, elaborate kill sequences, and dreamlike atmosphere. Angela Aki and Hajime Kawauchi composed the score (Deadline).
Eugene The Marine has already built buzz on the festival circuit. It was selected as the opening night gala film at the Oldenburg International Film Festival in September 2025, and it landed on Letterboxd Video Store's "Unreleased Gems" — a curated showcase of festival favourites that have not yet reached general audiences (Deadline).
The producing team is sizable. Bedford and Gagliardoni produced alongside Stephen Vincent, Henry Bedford, Barbara Bedford, Patrice Innocenti, Anita Modak-Truran, and Lisa Reneau. Scott Feinstein and Michael VanWingerden serve as executive producers (Deadline).
For Cineverse, the acquisition adds to a growing autumn slate. The distributor also has the 20th anniversary re-release of Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth heading to theatres on 9 October 2026 (Deadline).
The deal covers domestic rights — the United States and Canada — with Cineverse planning a platform release: opening in a small number of cities and expanding based on performance. An exact date within the autumn window has not been announced (Deadline).
For Glenn, now 86, the role adds another entry to a career spanning The Right Stuff, The Silence of the Lambs, and The Defiant Ones on television. Gaffigan, known primarily for his stand-up comedy, continues his run of dramatic character turns that includes American Dreamer and Them That Follow.
A giallo-inspired thriller about an elderly Marine, shot on grainy 16mm film, is not the kind of project that usually headlines a distributor's autumn schedule. That Cineverse is giving it a theatrical run — rather than steering it straight to streaming — suggests the festival reception carried weight with buyers.
