Simon Pegg Joins Dark Comedy 'My Phone Died' About Exploding Smartphones

Simon Pegg is set to play a Hollywood agent in My Phone Died, a dark comedy about smartphones that start exploding around the world. Variety reported the casting on 2 November 2026.

Pegg will play Gus, the agent. Mark Duplass is attached to play a self-obsessed client of Gus, and Haley Joel Osment is attached to play a recovering alcoholic and social media influencer. "Attached" means the actor has agreed to join, but the film has not yet started shooting.

The film is written, directed and co-starred by Hannah Leder and Alexandra Kotcheff. Leder plays Lillie, an agoraphobic and heavily pregnant wannabe actress. Kotcheff plays Francis, who has left her Amish community to be with Osment's character. It is the pair's second feature together as writer-directors, after The Planters in 2019.

Fire Tiger Films and Thank You So Much are producing. The film is scheduled to shoot in spring 2027, according to Variety.

Before any of that, the film has a buyer. Hyde Park International has acquired all international rights to My Phone Died ahead of the American Film Market, the trade fair in the United States where distributors buy and sell films. Variety reported the deal.

Selling foreign rights before a shoot is a common way for a producer to raise money and line up distribution early. A buyer who signs up before filming gives the producers a commitment they can take to lenders and other partners. It does not guarantee the film will be finished or released on any particular date.

For now, the news is the cast, the team behind the camera and the buyer. The premise, with its exploding phones and its agent, is the film's pitch. Whether it reaches cinemas or streaming screens in any country will depend on decisions still to come.