In an exclusive published October 13, Deadline revealed new details about *Confession*, a previously under-the-radar film made by conservative news site-turned-producer Daily Wire with Czech director Vaclav Marhoul, whose 2019 Holocaust drama *The Painted Bird* drew festival attention.

Penned by Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro, the film stars Rob Lowe as Alexei, a disillusioned former literature professor arrested in Stalin's 1938 Moscow and interrogated at Lubyanka Prison by his former student Vladimir, played by James Franco.

According to Deadline, the ensemble also includes Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Nick Nolte, Richard Brake, Emile Hirsch, Brad Dourif and Dean Norris — a cast the outlet calls the Daily Wire's starriest to date.

Deadline published a first teaser for the film alongside its exclusive, and corroborating coverage from SSBCrack News confirms the release plan: a world premiere at the Warsaw Film Festival on October 15, followed by a one-night theatrical run in 100 US theaters on November 11, the same day the film debuts on Daily Wire's streaming platform.

Both outlets report the production was shot entirely on 35mm film at Santa Clarita Studios north of Los Angeles, with veteran cinematographer Peter Menzies Jr. behind the camera. SSBCrack News also notes producers Dallas Sonnier and Travis Mills joined Shapiro and Sean Calvano on the project.

The surprise, as Deadline frames it, is that a producer long described as a magnet for controversy has attracted its most prominent ensemble yet.

Deadline reports the Daily Wire's recent films — the Jonathan Majors starrer *Run Hide Fight: Infidels* and Danny Trejo's in-production *Pawn Shop* — both drew opprobrium over their subjects and both faced temporary shutdowns.

Against that backdrop, luring Oscar, Emmy and Golden Globe nominees into a Shapiro-written psychological drama is a notable coup.

Marhoul told Deadline the single-location, dialogue-driven genre was a new challenge for him, while Shapiro called the film one rooted in faith, morality and what it means to be a free and decent human being.

The immediate next milestone is the Warsaw premiere on October 15, which will give the first public verdict on whether Marhoul's intimate drama connects beyond Daily Wire's core audience.

SSBCrack News writes that anticipation is building around how audiences will engage with this portrayal of historical oppression and its reflections on morality and resilience.

Lowe, quoted by Deadline, called it "an incredible story of the human spirit and its survival against those who would crush it."

Whether the November 11 one-night theatrical event translates curiosity into ticket sales — and whether the film travels beyond the political conversation surrounding its producer — will be the measure of the experiment.

Deadline embedded the first teaser for *Confession* with its exclusive, offering the first moving-image look at Rob Lowe's imprisoned professor and James Franco's interrogator inside the single-location Lubyanka Prison setting.

For a film that has been kept deliberately under wraps by a producer whose releases usually spark immediate political debate, the teaser itself is the story's reveal — the first chance for audiences to judge Marhoul's intimate, 35mm-shot psychological drama on its own terms.