![Cailee Spaeny & Drew Starkey To Star In 'Deep Cuts' For A24 [Ned]](https://cdn.theplaylist.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/03193536/Cailee-Spaeny-And-Drew-Starkey-To-Star-In-Deep-Cuts-Adaptation-At-A24.jpg "Cailee Spaeny & Drew Starkey To Star In 'Deep Cuts' For A24 [Ned]")
Back in February, Saoirse Ronan and Austin Butler were announced by A24 to star in Sean Durkin’s “Deep Cuts.” Fast-forward nine months, and now Ronan and Butler’s upcoming schedules are too busy for Durkin’s latest, leaving the director to find new co-stars instead.
According to Deadline, he’s found them. The outlet reports that Cailee Spaeny and Drew Starkey will replace Ronan and Butler in the film. Based on Holly Brickley‘s debut novel of the same name, released earlier this year, the 2000s-set “Deep Cuts” is, according to its synopsis, “a love story about two music-obsessed twenty-somethings navigating the messy realities of ambition, belonging, and adulthood over the course of an era-defining decade.”
Producer on “Deep Cuts” include Eli Bush, Ronald Bronsten, and Josh Safdie, with Durkin also producing with Anthony Katagas, Jordan Tappis via A24. Brickley is also on board as an executive producer. Meanwhile, Blake Mills, the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter-producer, will create original music for the film. Production on the film starts in February 2026.
So why did Butler and Ronan drop out of “Deep Cuts”? Well, Ronan will be busy all of next year making Sam Mendes‘ four “Beatles” movies. And Butler is attached to all sorts of projects that may shoot in 2026, including “Miami Vice,” “Heat 2,” “City On Fire,” and “American Speed.”
Spaeny and Starkey are A24 alums, though, so it makes sense they’d come in to replace; Spaeny starred in “Civil War” and “Priscilla” for the distributor, with Starkey in “Queer” last year. Upcoming work for the two includes “Onslaught” and “King Snake” for Starkey, while Spaeny has “Beef” S2 at Netflix and the “Alien: Romulus” sequel. Oh, and she’s also in “Wake Up Dead Man,” Rian Johnson‘s latest “Knives Out” mystery, in theaters and on Netflix this month.
Meanwhile, Durkin returns to A24 for “Deep Cuts” after a strong awards season push for “The Iron Claw” two years ago. But all three of Durkin’s feature films are excellent, the other two being 2011’s “Martha Marcy May Marlene” and 2020’s “The Nest.” Expect “Deep Cuts” to be up to that pedigree.
