James Gray returned to the New York crime film with Paper Tiger, starring Adam Driver, Miles Teller and Scarlett Johansson, at a Saturday gala in the Royal Festival Hall.
James Gray, the director of Ad Astra, gave Paper Tiger its UK premiere at the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank on Saturday 10 October 2026. Adam Driver, Miles Teller and Scarlett Johansson lead its cast.
Gray was born in New York in 1969, grew up in Flushing, Queens, and studied film at the University of Southern California. Little Odessa won the Silver Lion at Venice in 1994.
The Immigrant, The Lost City of Z and Armageddon Time followed, the last drawn from his own childhood. Six of his films have competed for the Palme d’Or at Cannes.
Paper Tiger returned him to the borough he grew up in, from a screenplay he wrote in the tradition of Sidney Lumet and Michael Mann.
Teller plays Irwin Pearl, an engineer and family man. His brother, a former police officer played by Driver, draws him into a well-paid job that turns against them both.
The film played as a late gala of the London Film Festival. Gray also gave a Screen Talk during the festival on a body of work built around brothers, loyalty and New York.