Samuel L. Jackson plays US president in Renny Harlin's The Beast
Samuel L. Jackson plays United States President Oscar Palladin in The Beast, the action film from director Renny Harlin that was reviewed by Variety on 7 October 2026.
The review names the central pairing. Joel Kinnaman appears opposite Jackson as Taft, an agent with the Secret Service, the agency tasked with protecting American presidents. The script is credited to writer Umair Aleem, Variety reported in the same review.
On the distribution side, Aura controls the U.S. rights to the film. In plain terms, that means the company organises how The Beast is sold to theatres and later platforms in the United States, which covers the United States and Canada as the domestic market plus other American outlets. Aura picked up those rights in a deal reported by The Hollywood Reporter in May 2026. The film was then described as due for release in October, The Hollywood Reporter reported in June 2026, which placed the October review close to the arrival in cinemas.
The production was put together through Unified Pictures, identified as the producer by Variety in May 2025. The shoot made use of Spain and its islands. The Beast was the first major shoot to test the Canary Islands VFX system late last year, Variety reported in October 2025. VFX is short for visual effects, the computer work used to build places, vehicles and action that cannot be filmed directly. A test of this kind lets a production try local stages, crews and tax incentives before later films book the same facilities.
Variety’s review offers a blunt early reading. It states that The Beast does not get any better after its first 15 minutes. That judgement comes entirely from the reviewer. It is one response, published as audiences were preparing to see the film for themselves.
For viewers catching up, the line-up is now set out in full. Jackson as the president, Kinnaman as his protector, Harlin behind the camera and Aleem on the script. Behind the screen, there is a Unified Pictures production filmed with new island effects support, an American release handled by Aura, and an October date on the calendar.
