Tony Award winner Lena Hall has joined the cast of Disconnecting Peter, teaming up with Chad Michael Murray in a family drama written and directed by Christopher Beatty, Variety reported on 28 July 2026.

Hall will play Elizabeth Ruck, wife to Murray's character Peter Ruck. The film follows the Ruck family as they reckon with the fallout of a past tragedy — a story that pairs Hall's stage-honed intensity with Murray's long-established screen presence.

Hall won her Tony for playing Yitzhak in the 2014 Broadway revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the rock musical that made a star of its lead, Neil Patrick Harris, and earned Hall the award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She has since built a career that bridges theatre, television and music, making Disconnecting Peter her latest move from the stage into independent film.

Murray, best known to audiences from One Tree Hill and A Cinderella Story, was announced as the film's lead in the same Variety report. His casting as Peter Ruck anchors a project that, by its premise, leans on the kind of two-hand chemistry a husband-and-wife dynamic demands.

Behind the camera, Eddie Micallef and Benjamin J. Murray are producing, with Thomas J. Mollica executive producing. Stephanie Holbrook is overseeing casting, and additional roles are still being filled — meaning the ensemble around Hall and Murray may grow before cameras roll.

Production is slated to begin in January 2027 in New Jersey. That timeline puts Disconnecting Peter on a path toward a late-2027 release corridor at the earliest, though no distributor or release date has been announced. For independent features of this scale, a festival premiere — Sundance, Toronto, or South by Southwest — would be a typical first stop on the road to a theatrical or streaming deal.

For Hall, the role of Elizabeth Ruck offers a meaty dramatic part in a project still taking shape. For Murray, it pairs him with a performer whose Tony credentials signal the film is aiming for emotional depth rather than spectacle. And for Christopher Beatty, a writer-director whose name is only now entering wider trade coverage, the film represents a first major test of his material with proven talent in front of the lens.

New Jersey as a production base has drawn increasing film and television work in recent years, aided by a state tax incentive programme that rebates a portion of qualifying production spend. January shoots in the state are common for independents chasing lower location costs during the post-holiday lull.

Additional casting announcements are expected as the project moves toward its early-2027 start.