Sometimes, life is cruel. Just ask Bryan Fuller. The brilliant TV maestro has been forced to spend an infuriating amount of his career leaving promising-sounding shows in pre-production when network executives get jittery about his daring vision. And when that doesn’t happen? He often ends up having to watch his work suffer an unjust early death. (Or, in the case of “American Gods,” slowly wither away on the vine after he and Michael Green left as showrunners.) At the same time, Fuller seems to know better than to spend too long licking his wounds after his latest professional setback. Sure enough, on the heels of his departure from the “Friday the 13th” prequel series “Crystal Lake” (which, when Fuller was involved, could’ve starred Charlize Theron as Pamela Voorhees), he’s now back with his feature writing-directing debut, “Dust Bunny.”
Despite appearances to the contrary, however, “Dust Bunny” was in the works well before Fuller exited “Crystal Lake.” A lower-budgeted affair, the movie began production in 2023 and was given permission to keep filming by the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) during that year’s historic industry strikes. (Rest assured, my fellow Fuller-heads, the man is no scab.) But as exciting as any new Fuller project is, this one comes with an added bonus: It serves as a reunion for Fuller and his “Hannibal” leading man, Mads Mikkelsen. And judging by its official trailer (see above), “Dust Bunny” promises to be just the thing that Fannibals need to fill the twisted, visually-splendiferous hole that’s been residing in their hearts ever since Fuller and Mikkelsen’s beloved Thomas Harris re-imagining came to a premature conclusion three seasons in (leaving its cannibalistic namesake and the object of his obsession, Hugh Dancy’s Will Graham, in a literal chokehold until further notice).
Dust Bunny looks like the culmination of Bryan Fuller’s oeuvre to date, Hannibal included
Roadside Attractions
Who do you call when the monsters under your bed kill your parents? Why, the enigmatic and devilishly handsome hit man who lives next door, obviously! Such is the setup for “Dust Bunny,” a film that also stars the likes of Scream Queen/screen icon Sigourney Weaver and newly-crowned Scream King David Dastmalchian (“Late Night with the Devil”), in addition to Sophie Sloan as the young girl who asks Mikkelsen’s professional assassin for assistance when things that go bump in the night seemingly off the rest of her family. Mikkelsen’s killer-for-hire, of course, assumes the kid’s parents were really accidentally slain by some of his many enemies at first, but by the look of it, he’ll soon learn that there are monsters far more terrifying than him in the world.
As for “Dust Bunny” itself, the movie appears to be the culmination of Fuller’s oeuvre to date. You’ve got the obvious “Hannibal” connection (Mikkelsen playing a guy with some, ahem, questionable views about the value of human life), but also magical realist elements that recall both the themes and the visuals of “American Gods” (like the implication that fantastical beings are casually looming in the corners of our world without us knowing it). There’s even some “Pushing Daisies”-style dark whimsy in there (including, yes, a shot of a field of actual daisies), plus the larger preoccupation with death and a character for whom folks dying is nothing more than a mundane aspect of their everyday lives, much like the grim reapers in Fuller’s breakout series “Dead Like Me.” Hopefully, between all that and the passion of the “Hannibal” fanbase alone, the film will have enough going for it to prevent it from becoming yet another unjustly overlooked Bryan Fuller creation.
“Dust Bunny” will premiere during the Midnight Madness program at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2025, prior to hitting theaters a few months later on December 5.