Wicker viral trailer gives Topic Studios big TIFF run
A woven husband started a joke about flat-pack furniture — and gave indie outfit Topic Studios a noisy run into the Toronto film festival.
Ryan Heller, head of film and documentary at Topic Studios, spoke to The Hollywood Reporter ahead of TIFF about a year built around three titles: Wicker, Club Kid and The Debut.
Wicker is a fantasy drama starring Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgard. It follows a spinster fisherwoman who hires a local basketmaker to weave her a husband. Skarsgård plays the wicker-man husband, and the film is described as a comedic fable by Deadline.
The theatrical trailer went viral on TikTok in July. It pulled in millions of views among the romantasy audience on BookTok — romantasy meaning romance mixed with fantasy, and BookTok meaning the book-loving corner of TikTok.
Then Ikea joined in. The retailer posted on social media that its wicker furniture line was made out of “husband material” amid the buzz. Short line. Big share.
Wicker had already bowed at Sundance in January before its cinema release, according to Variety. Black Bear will handle the theatrical release — industry shorthand for putting the film in cinemas.
Topic sold Jordan Firstman’s debut feature Club Kid to A24 out of the Cannes Film Festival. The film went to Cannes without distribution and without prescreening for buyers, meaning distributors had not seen it in advance.
Firstman stars as a carousing New York City club promoter, according to TIFF. The 122-minute 2026 film turns on raising a 10-year-old son he never knew he had. Heller is credited as a producer.
The third title is Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut, which premiered on Sept. 5. It stars Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti in a dark comedy about a bored suburban housewife who finds purpose acting in community theatre, according to TIFF. Topic partnered with A24 very early on that film, before its world premiere — the first public screening.
Both Club Kid and The Debut are screening at TIFF.
What makes this stand out is timing. Topic was founded in 2017, before Neon and just after A24. It is now arriving at a major festival with a viral trailer, a Cannes sale and a September premiere in the same slate.
