Bryan Fuller made his bones as a television auteur, the mind behind cult classics like Pushing Daisies and Hannibal. Now he’s slipping into the world of cinema with Dust Bunny, his characteristically colorful, imaginative feature directorial debut. The film reunites Fuller with television’s Hannibal Lecter, Mads Mikkelsen, who leads a cast that includes Sophie Sloan, Sigourney Weaver, and David Dastmalchian. After premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, the movie is slated to open in theaters December 5.
According to the synopsis for Dust Bunny, “Ten-year-old Aurora (Sloan) has a mysterious neighbor (Mikkelsen) who kills real-life monsters. He’s a hit man for hire. So, when Aurora needs help killing the monster she believes ate her entire family, she procures his services. Suspecting that her parents may have fallen victim to assassins gunning for him, Aurora’s neighbor guiltily takes the job. Now, to protect her, he’ll need to battle an onslaught of assassins―and accept that some monsters are real.”
Mikkelsen has described Dust Bunny as “really sweet and funny,” though the trailer leans more into murder, mayhem, and darkness. (Weaver’s observation that “You seem triggered” might be a laugh line, but is in and of itself fairly triggering in this day and age.) If the project carries a whiff of John Wick about it, that’s no coincidence: both assassin tales are produced by Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee. “It’s an incredible script. It’s unlike anything I’ve worked on before,” Lee told SlashFilm in 2023. “I mean, Bryan Fuller’s brain is somewhere that I just want to sit inside of. It’s visual and interesting. It’s like if David Fincher had directed Amelie. It is insane. And Mads is a singular talent. I worked with him a couple times on the Clash Of The Titans movies. And they have an amazing relationship. And Mads is playing an assassin, and it’s just really fucking cool.”
