Tyler Gallant Signs to Star in Caravaggio Art-Heist Thriller Nativity

Tyler Gallant has signed to star in Nativity, a crime thriller built around the theft of a Caravaggio painting, Deadline reported on 10 November 2026.

Gallant will play Francis Battista, a washed-up boxer who has drifted into low-level crime. His aim is to win back custody of his daughter.

The story takes its cue from a real theft. In 1969, thieves took Caravaggio's 1609 masterpiece Nativity with Saint Francis and Saint Lawrence from a church in Palermo. The painting has never been recovered, and the film is a fictional take on that crime.

Maltese director and producer Joshua Cassar Gaspar wrote the screenplay and will direct. Nativity is his second feature. His debut, The Theft of the Caravaggio, premiered in competition at the Mediterrane Film Festival in 2025.

Nativity is the second chapter in a planned trilogy of crime thrillers inspired by Caravaggio's paintings. Each film stands alone, so viewers do not need to have seen the others to follow the story.

The producers are Cassar Gaspar, Alon Michael Hattingh and Aaron Barnett. The film has support from Arts Council Malta, the island's national arts funding body. Cassar Gaspar is producing under two companies: Jericho Dominion and Valletta Pictures, his joint company with Hattingh.

Two members of the first film's team are coming back. Cinematographer Daniel Cawthorne, who shoots the camera work, and composer Elton Zarb, who writes the score, both worked on The Theft of the Caravaggio and will reunite with Cassar Gaspar on this one.

Production is set to begin in early 2027. Until then, the cast and crew list is the main news, and the next thing to watch is where and when the film will be shown.

For fans of the first film, the return of the same director and key crew makes the trilogy's plan easier to follow. For everyone else, the project offers a simple hook: a real art theft, a fictional heist, and a boxer trying to get his daughter back.