Brittany O'Grady Stars in Thriller State of Emergency, Heading to AFM Sales

FilmNation Entertainment will take the thriller State of Emergency to buyers at the American Film Market, according to Deadline, which published the news on 30 October 2026 as an exclusive.

The film is a thriller set in Boston. Brittany O'Grady stars as Jenna, a 911 dispatcher who is haunted by the death of her teenage brother. As strange incidents begin to unfold, they connect to an event in Boston Harbor.

Greg Yaitanes will direct the film from a screenplay by Nick Luddington. Infrared Pictures, the genre production label of FilmNation, is financing the project. Sam Brown and Dustin Thomason will produce through Curiosity Media, alongside Infrared.

Filmmakers often take a project to the American Film Market, a deal-making event where sales agents meet buyers. Those buyers may be cinema chains, streaming services or broadcasters in different countries. They can agree to pay for a film before it is finished, which helps the producers cover their costs. FilmNation is launching sales for State of Emergency at that market, so the film's rights could start to be bought for different territories there.

The cast and director are set, but production has not yet begun. Deadline reports that shooting is expected to start next year, in 2027. Until then, the film is in its early stage, and it has no release date or distributor announced.

For a viewer, the timeline is long. A film sold at a market in late 2026 usually needs more than a year of filming, editing and promotion before it reaches a screen. Many projects that reach this stage are still being shaped by buyers and financiers, so the final title, cut and release plans may change.

For now, the news is simple. A genre thriller has a star, a director, a writer and a financier, and its sales campaign begins at the American Film Market.