Hammerstone Backs 'Little One'
Producers Zach Cregger and Roy Lee are reteaming on a dark comedy titled 'Little One' with financing provided by Hammerstone Studios, illustrating current indie production financing and packaging activity. The deal shows continued studio interest in mid‑budget genre/tonal films that can be financed outside major-studio fully‑backed slates (x.com).
Zach Cregger and Roy Lee are teaming up again, this time to produce *Little One*, a dark comedy that Hammerstone Studios is financing. (deadline.com) Deadline reported April 13 that Alex Kavutskiy will direct the film from his own script in his feature debut. Casting is underway, production is set for Los Angeles in June, and the project has received a California tax credit. (deadline.com) The story centers on “a sudden change in a child’s behavior” that threatens a “picture-perfect family,” according to the trade report. Chris McEwen is producing with Cregger and Lee, and Amanda Phillips and Melina Torres are producing for Soto Productions. (deadline.com) The package pairs two producers coming off a run of studio genre work. Cregger wrote and directed *Barbarian* in 2022, and he and Lee later teamed on *Weapons*, with a *Resident Evil* movie also on Sony’s schedule for September 2026, according to Deadline. (deadline.com) Hammerstone is not just lending its name. Deadline identified the company as financier and producer on *By Any Means*, the Elegance Bratton thriller that Paramount acquired for a September 4, 2026 theatrical release days before the *Little One* report. (deadline.com) The company has been building a slate around independently financed films that later land distribution. Hammerstone says it has produced more than 15 films since 2018, including *Bill & Ted Face the Music*, *Barbarian*, *Sympathy for the Devil* and *Boy Kills World*. (hammerstonestudios.com) California’s tax-credit program is part of that financing picture. The California Film Commission says the program is designed to keep production spending and jobs in the state, and approved-project rules generally require features to start production within set deadlines after an award. (film.ca.gov) For Kavutskiy, *Little One* is a move from writing and comedy work into feature directing with established backers already attached. For Cregger and Lee, it is another bet on an off-center genre premise that can be assembled outside a fully studio-funded slate and shot in Los Angeles this summer. (deadline.com)
