“If you leave a door half open, soon you’ll hear the whispers spoken.” That sinister childhood rhyme comes to life in “The Whisper Man,” a new psychological crime thriller starring Robert De Niro, Adam Scott, and Michelle Monaghan, arriving on Netflix later this summer.
Based on Alex North’s bestselling novel, the film centers on Tom Kennedy (Scott), a widowed crime writer whose eight-year-old son is abducted. Desperate for help, Tom turns to his estranged father, Pete Willis (De Niro), a retired police detective who discovers a connection between the disappearance and the decades-old case of a convicted serial killer known as the Whisper Man.
The case forces father and son to confront their strained relationship while revisiting a nightmare that may not be as safely buried as they believed. “It’s an inherently frightening idea, the idea that anybody could be reaching out to your child or talking secretly to them,” North previously told Netflix’s Tudum. “It works really, really well in the film. I was pleased it was there.”
James Ashcroft, who previously directed “Coming Home in the Dark” and “The Rule of Jenny Pen,” helms the adaptation from a screenplay by Ben Jacoby and Chase Palmer. The supporting cast includes Hamish Linklater, Owen Teague, Acston Luca Porto, and Will Brill.
Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Angela Russo-Otstot, Michael Disco, and Kassee Whiting produce the film, marking the sixth collaboration between the Russos’ AGBO and Netflix. Russo-Otstot previously described the project as both “a gripping thriller” and “a poignant and complex story of fathers and sons.”
“The Whisper Man” premieres globally on Netflix on August 28. Watch the trailer below.
Edward Davis is a senior film journalist and longtime contributor to The Playlist. Davis covers the full breadth of cinema — from major studio releases to independent and international film.
