Emory Cohen to Star in 'Thick,' a Dark Comedy Taking Aim at the Manosphere
Emory Cohen has signed on to lead Thick, a dark comedy that marks the feature directorial debut of Joshua Ryan Dietz, who also wrote the script. Deadline reported the attachment on 26 August 2026.
The film follows Richard, a small-town man whose unusually large penis made him a local legend in his youth. Now 35, alone, and grasping that the one thing everyone valued him for was never enough to build a life on, Richard goes searching for meaning — and gets pulled into an alpha-male group that promises answers but pushes him further off course.
Dietz told Deadline the project grew out of "the absurdity of the alpha-male movement and men's obsession with masculinity," and a desire to find "the gut-wrenching bottom of why men are turning to the manosphere for answers." The manosphere — the loose network of online communities promoting male supremacy and anti-feminist ideology — gets a darkly comic treatment here rather than a documentary one.
Cohen is a recognisable face for indie audiences. He broke through opposite Saoirse Ronan in Brooklyn (2015) and earlier appeared in Derek Cianfrance's The Place Beyond the Pines (2012). Coming into Thick, he had wrapped roles in Josh Safdie's Oscar-nominated Marty Supreme and Cianfrance's Roofman. His next film to reach screens is Parker Finn's Paramount remake of the 1981 psychological horror Possession.
For Dietz, Thick is the leap from short films to features. His short Supper — a darkly comedic tragedy blending familial tension with allegorical undercurrents — starred Dale Dickey and Jeff Perry and screened at the Cleveland International Film Festival and FilmQuest. Dietz produced, wrote, and directed Supper through his own company, and his other credits include The Pale Blue Eye (2022) and The LaLaurie Mansion.
Thick is set to shoot in California, taking advantage of the state's tax credit programme — an incentive that rebates a portion of qualifying production spend to encourage filmmakers to shoot in-state rather than chase cheaper locations abroad. Thomas Hartmann, Allison Dietz, and Joshua Ryan Dietz (under his Tammie's Son banner) produce. Hartmann previously produced Hal & Harper. Casting is handled by Seth Yanklewitz and Ben Pollack.
What makes the project stand out is the collision of talent and subject. Cohen has built a career on internal, quietly volatile characters — the kind of men who seem calm until they are not. Richard, a man who discovers his defining trait was never a foundation for anything real, sits squarely in that wheelhouse. Dietz, for his part, is trading the controlled canvas of a short film for a feature-length study of male identity in crisis, with a premise that dares to be both funny and bleak.
No release date has been set. With production anchored in California and the key creative pieces falling into place, Thick is one to watch as it moves toward cameras.
