Kathryn Bigelow’s Netflix Oscar hopeful gets explosive title: ‘A House of Dynamite’
Netflix has Big(elow) ambitions for this year’s Oscar race.
On Wednesday morning, the streaming giant shared fresh details about the awards hopeful formerly known as “Untitled Kathryn Bigelow Project,” hailing from the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty. Bigelow’s latest film is officially called A House of Dynamite and features an A-list cast that includes Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Greta Lee, and Tracy Letts.
Written by Noah Oppenheim — the former NBC News president-turned-lauded screenwriter of films like Jackie — the all-too-timely premise involves a rogue missile headed directly for American shores. While the explosive projectile is in flight, officials at the highest levels of power scramble to figure out which country or organization is responsible for the inbound attack.
In addition to the title, Netflix shared an evocative first-look image for A House of Dynamite, featuring a solider in full battle rattle under a blood red sky. The streamer also confirmed that the film will receive a limited theatrical release in October, followed by an Oct. 24 streaming launch.
It’s Bigelow’s first theatrically released feature since 2017’s Detroit, an eight-year gap that she has filled with projects ranging from executive producing J.C. Chandor’s Netflix favorite Triple Frontier to helming Super Bowl commercials for big brands like Budweiser.
But any Bigelow-directed feature is well worth the wait. After helming such cult favorites as Near Dark and Strange Days in the '80s and '90s, she made Oscar history in 2010 as the first female filmmaker to win the Best Director statue for The Hurt Locker. That acclaimed Iraq War drama also toppled the Goliath known as James Cameron’s Avatar to win Best Picture.
Two years later, the tick-tock war on terror thriller Zero Dark Thirty put her back in the Best Picture race and nabbed four additional nominations for its screenplay, film editing, sound editing, and Jessica Chastain’s acclaimed star turn.
Considering current geopolitical tensions, A House of Dynamite is likely going to be an explosive addition to Netflix's awards slate and could net Bigelow her second directing Oscar nod. "It's the moment of a lifetime," she said while accepting her historic win in 2010. Since that victory, only two other women have won Best Director statues: Chloé Zhao for Nomadland in 2021 and Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog in 2022.