Chris Evans, Jessica Chastain, and Chris Pine Lead Elijah Bynum's Crime Thriller 'My Darling California,' Filming in LA This Summer

One of the more exciting film packages to emerge in recent memory is quietly moving into pre-production, and working professionals in Los Angeles should be paying close attention. My Darling California, the next feature from writer-director Elijah Bynum, is set to begin principal photography in late summer or September 2026, with Los Angeles serving as its primary filming location. With an ensemble that includes Chris Evans, Jessica Chastain, Chris Pine, Mikey Madison, Charles Melton, and Don Cheadle, this is the kind of production that draws serious talent both in front of and behind the camera. Department heads and experienced crew in the LA area have several months to get on the radar here, but the time to move is now.

Bynum reunites with the creative energy that earned him significant attention following Magazine Dreams, the unflinching 2023 bodybuilding drama starring Jonathan Majors that premiered at Sundance and announced Bynum as a filmmaker with genuine range and a distinct point of view. My Darling California is a tonal pivot in the best possible way: a dark comic crime thriller set in 1980 Los Angeles, following how a single crime spirals outward to connect a TV host, his restless wife, a country music idol, two small-time crooks, and a freshly released ex-con, all of them reaching for something just out of grasp. That logline, set against the sun-bleached excess of early Reagan-era LA, signals a production with serious period ambitions and a sharp sense of irony. Evans, Chastain, Pine, Madison, Melton, and Cheadle represent a staggering amount of collective star power, and the ensemble format suggests a multi-threaded narrative with the kind of complex production logistics that keeps experienced coordinators and ADs very busy.

The below-the-line team Bynum has assembled is equally impressive, and for crew assessing the caliber of this shoot, these names speak volumes. Cinematographer Chayse Irvin brings a rich visual sensibility developed across projects including Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman and Beyonce's Lemonade, and his work has consistently shown an ability to marry period texture with visceral energy. Production designer Judy Becker is arguably the most significant hire here for anyone in the art department: her recent work on Brady Corbet's The Brutalist earned widespread acclaim and demonstrated a command of large-scale, historically grounded environments that will translate powerfully to 1980s Los Angeles. Costume designer Erin Benach brings her own period credibility, having defined the iconic visual language of Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive, another stylized LA crime film with an impeccable sense of era. Editor Leslie Jones, known for her long collaboration with Paul Thomas Anderson including The Master, rounds out a below-the-line roster that is, by any measure, working at the top of the industry.

The production is backed by 2AM and Anton, with Anton also financing the project and handling international sales. 2AM, the production company founded by producer David Hinojosa, has developed a reputation for backing ambitious, director-driven work, having been closely involved in films including Honey Boy and Saint Maud. Anton is a well-regarded international sales and financing outfit that has supported prestige independent cinema across multiple genres. Alex Coco and Sebastien Raybaud join Hinojosa as producers, with Zach Nutman serving as executive producer. The absence of a major studio or streamer in the current announcement is worth noting: this appears to be a fully financed independent feature positioning for festival premiere and distribution, which typically means a tighter budget infrastructure than a studio greenlight, but also a creatively nimble set with significant autonomy for department heads.

Filming is set for Los Angeles, and for local crew, that is genuinely good news. California's Film and Television Tax Credit program has made LA an increasingly competitive location for major productions that might otherwise migrate to Georgia or New Mexico, and a 1980s-set crime film with this level of talent attached is exactly the kind of project that benefits from the state's robust incentive structure. LA's stage infrastructure, from Sunset Bronson to Raleigh Studios to the sprawling lots in Burbank, gives a period production like this tremendous flexibility. The 1980 setting will demand significant location scouting for practical environments that can pass for the era, which means a locations department with strong knowledge of the city's architectural pockets that have been preserved from that decade. The art and costume departments, already anchored by Becker and Benach, will be building out teams in the coming months.

Given the August 2026 target, the production is likely entering the phase where department heads are being approached and deals are beginning to close. Crew in locations, props, set decoration, wardrobe, and the camera department should treat this as an active opportunity rather than one to watch passively. The combination of a festival-caliber creative team, a prestige ensemble cast, and a period LA setting makes My Darling California one of the more compelling pre-production listings in the independent film space right now. The full production listing on ProductionList.com includes the latest crew contacts, production office details, and scheduling updates as they become available. If this is the kind of project you want to be on, this is the moment to make your introduction.

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