Martin McDonagh's Wild Horse Nine Unveiled at Venice, with John Malkovich in the Awards Conversation
Martin McDonagh's new film Wild Horse Nine launched at the Venice Film Festival on September 3, 2026, with press screenings and a press conference on the Lido, where stars John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi and Parker Posey took the stage alongside their writer-director (Deadline).
The film is set just before the 1973 Chilean coup that toppled President Salvador Allende. Malkovich and Rockwell play CIA agents Chris and Lee, dispatched from Santiago to Easter Island by their bureau chief MJ, played by Buscemi. Tom Waits plays Chris's brother; Parker Posey plays Marge, Lee's wife (TIFF). The cast is rounded out by Mariana Di Girolamo, Ailín Salas and Tom Waits, with a running time of 118 minutes (La Biennale).
McDonagh told the Venice press conference that his fascination with the CIA and the fate of Allende's government drove the project. It is his first film since The Banshees of Inisherin, which earned nine Oscar nominations in 2023, including for directing, writing and Best Picture (Deadline). McDonagh himself has seven Oscar nominations and one win. The film was only the second ever to shoot on Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui, according to McDonagh and producer Graham Broadbent.
Wild Horse Nine screens in the Venezia 83 Competition, the Venice Film Festival's official competition section (La Biennale). It is a UK, USA and Chile co-production, produced by Blueprint Pictures — the banner behind McDonagh's Banshees — with producers Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Martin McDonagh and Anita Overland. Film4 and Searchlight Pictures are also among the production companies, alongside Rh Negative Entertainment and Catch and Release Films.
Malkovich, now 72, has two previous Oscar nominations — one in 1985 and one in 1994. Awards prognosticators already place him firmly in the mix for a competitive best actor category in the 2026-27 season (Deadline). Whether that momentum holds will depend on the films that follow Wild Horse Nine into the festival corridor.
Searchlight Pictures has set a November 6, 2026 theatrical release date for the United Kingdom and the United States, and the film is also headed to the Toronto International Film Festival this autumn, as announced by the distributor (Searchlight Pictures, Facebook; TIFF). Venice and Toronto together are the launchpad most awards contenders use — a film that plays well at both can enter the November release window with critical momentum already built.
For audiences, that means a film about Cold War intrigue on a remote Pacific island, from one of the most decorated writer-directors working today, arrives in cinemas roughly two months after its festival premiere.
