Brian Duffield’s Whalefall, with Austin Abrams as a diver swallowed by a sperm whale and Josh Brolin as his father, had its UK gala screening in Leicester Square.
Whalefall, Brian Duffield’s survival thriller from Daniel Kraus’s novel, had its UK gala screening at Cineworld Leicester Square in the West End on Monday 5 October 2026. Its stars, Austin Abrams and Josh Brolin, walked the carpet with Duffield and Kraus.
Duffield, born in 1985, spent his first nine years in Pennsylvania before his family moved to County Kildare. He made his name as a screenwriter on Insurgent, The Babysitter and Underwater.
He turned director with Spontaneous in 2020 and followed it with No One Will Save You in 2023. Kraus, who wrote Trollhunters with Guillermo del Toro, adapted his own 2023 novel with him.
The story follows a young diver who searches the sea off California’s central coast for his father’s remains. A sperm whale swallows him with an hour of oxygen left. The production built about six stomachs, an oesophagus and a robotic whale.
The screening came eleven days before the film opened in British cinemas.
Abrams, who played Ethan Daley in Euphoria, leads the cast as Jay Gardiner. Brolin, his co-star on Weapons, plays Jay’s father, Mitt, and has played Thanos for Marvel. Elisabeth Shue plays Jay’s mother.