Rob Savage's Subterranean Horror 'Molepeople' Starring LaKeith Stanfield and Ben Mendelsohn Sets UK Shoot for Late 2026

One of horror's most exciting working directors is heading underground. Rob Savage's new feature Molepeople, a subterranean thriller set beneath the streets of New York City, is gearing up for a United Kingdom-based shoot beginning at the end of November or early December 2026, with Paramount Pictures targeting a theatrical release of August 27, 2027. The production is currently in pre-production, which means the hiring pipeline is open and the opportunity to get in early on what looks like one of the more ambitious horror features of the coming year is very real for UK-based crew and department heads.

Savage is one of the most talked-about voices in contemporary horror, having broken through with the genuinely inventive Host in 2020, a feature filmed entirely over Zoom during lockdown that became a viral sensation and one of the most profitable horror films ever made relative to its budget. He followed that with Dashcam in 2021 and then made a significant leap into studio horror with his adaptation of Stephen Graham Jones's The Boogeyman for 20th Century Studios in 2023, a wide theatrical release that proved he could operate comfortably at a much larger scale. Molepeople represents another step up in profile, pairing him with a screenplay by Nathan Elston and a cast that signals serious commercial and awards-adjacent ambitions. LaKeith Stanfield, known widely for his work on Atlanta and Sorry to Bother You, and Ben Mendelsohn, the Oscar-nominated Australian actor whose credits span Bloodline, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and The Dark Knight Rises, make for an unusually strong lead pairing for a horror feature. Both actors bring a grounded, psychologically complex energy that suggests Molepeople is aiming for something more layered than a straightforward creature feature.

The producing team here is a genuine signal of the film's ambitions. Jason Blum, the founder of Blumhouse Productions and the man behind the Paranormal Activity franchise, the Purge series, Get Out, and the Halloween revival, produces alongside J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules of Paramount Primal, the genre label Paramount Pictures launched to develop elevated horror and thriller content. James Harris, a British producer with credits including A Cure for Wellness and Gerald's Game, rounds out the producing team and brings meaningful UK production experience to the mix. Ryan Turek, a longtime Blumhouse creative executive who has shepherded some of the company's most successful genre output, and Tracy Rosenblum executive produce alongside writer Nathan Elston and Savage himself. The co-financing and co-production arrangement between Blumhouse Atomic Monster and Paramount Primal is worth noting: Atomic Monster is James Wan's production company, which joined forces with Blumhouse in a formal merger in 2023, creating one of the most formidable genre production entities in the business. With Paramount handling worldwide distribution and a confirmed theatrical release date already on the calendar, this is a fully financed, studio-backed horror feature with real momentum behind it.

Principal photography is set to take place in the United Kingdom, with a start window of late November or early December 2026. While a specific UK city or studio facility has not been confirmed in the available production data, productions of this scale and genre frequently base out of the greater London area, taking advantage of facilities like Pinewood Studios, Shepperton Studios, or the growing number of soundstage complexes in the surrounding counties. The subterranean setting of the story, which involves extensive sequences in abandoned tunnels and underground spaces, suggests a significant practical construction component, meaning the art department and production design team will likely be building substantial sets rather than relying entirely on location work in actual tunnels. That kind of build-heavy production is well-suited to the large stage infrastructure available in the UK, and it helps explain why a film set beneath New York City is being made in Britain rather than on location. The UK's generous production tax relief, which offers qualifying productions a rebate of up to 34 percent on eligible UK expenditure under the Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit, is almost certainly a major factor in the location decision. The UK has one of the strongest horror genre crew bases in the world, with deep pools of talent in prosthetics, practical effects, production design, and creature work, all of which are likely to be in demand on a film of this type.

The genre and logline point to a production that will lean heavily on atmosphere, practical construction, and likely a meaningful VFX pipeline for the subterranean world-building. A film about a hidden society living beneath a major city implies the kind of large-scale art department and set decoration work that requires significant lead time, and the roughly twelve months of pre-production runway before cameras roll suggests those conversations are beginning now. The film is being made under the Blumhouse and Paramount Primal banners, both of which operate as union productions under BECTU in the UK context, and the studio distribution deal with Paramount points to a budget range comfortably in the mid-to-upper tier for genre features. With a fixed theatrical release date of August 27, 2027, the schedule is firm, which gives potential crew a reliable target to plan around.

For working professionals interested in getting on board, now is the time to be paying attention. Productions at this stage, with a shoot still roughly a year out, are in the early phases of department head conversations, and the window to position yourself is widest right now. Head to ProductionList.com for the full Molepeople production listing, where you can find the most current information on production contacts, office locations, and crew confirmations as they are added. If you are a UK-based crew member or a department head with experience on large-scale practical horror productions, this one is worth pursuing actively. Bookmark the listing and check back regularly as the production moves closer to its late 2026 start.

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