Sony wins Michelle Yeoh thriller The Surgeon after Toronto bidding
Sony Pictures has won North American rights to The Surgeon, the action thriller starring Michelle Yeoh, after multiple bids out of Toronto. The deal was reported by Deadline on 22 September.
The pact covers theatres in the United States and Canada. It also gives Sony rights in Latin America, Italy, China and Hong Kong, according to the same report.
Yeoh plays an expert surgeon who is abducted and forced to operate on a mysterious patient. The cast also includes Martin Freeman, Laurie Davidson, Yuri Kolokolnikov and Joseph Mydell.
The film was directed by Dr. Roshan Sethi and written by Sethi. Sethi works as a practising radiation oncologist at a Boston hospital. His earlier credits include co-creating the Fox medical series The Resident and directing the 2025 romantic comedy A Nice Indian Boy.
Thunder Road and Tango produced the film, with Thunder Road's Basil Iwanyk, Erica Lee and Diarmaid McGrath named as producers. WME negotiated on behalf of the film-makers, while 193, a Legendary company, handled international sales rights to foreign buyers.
The Surgeon arrived in Toronto as a title for sale. It was named in Deadline's TIFF 2026 Hot List of films seeking distribution, and TIFF selected it as its 2026 Sloan Science on Film Showcase Official Selection. Out of the festival, it held a 100% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes from eleven reviews.
Yeoh won Best Actress at the 2023 Oscars for Everything Everywhere All at Once. She had two official selections at this year's festival, with The Surgeon joined by Bai Xue's It's My Time.
What makes this stand out is the fit between story and storyteller. A medical abduction thriller led by an Oscar winner, directed by a working doctor, gave buyers something clear to sell to a general audience.
