Justin Long is in negotiations to star opposite Iris Apatow in Stung, a survival thriller built around aggressive killer bees that was announced May 13, 2026 and introduced to international buyers at the 2026 Cannes Film Market.
The project, being shown to distributors by VMI Worldwide, reunites Long with director Colin Minihan. Minihan and Long worked together on 2025’s Coyotes, a comedy-horror about a family trapped between a wildfire and a pack of savage coyotes, and the new film is now being pitched as a straight survival thriller that gears up for production.
Those facts matter at Cannes because the market is where projects win the financing and foreign pre-sales that push a film from announcement into principal photography. Stung’s appearance at the market on May 13, 2026 puts it in front of international buyers at the exact moment its lead casting is still unsettled — a common but decisive stage for mid-budget genre pictures.
Apatow, born October 12, 2002, is 23 and brings screen experience across comedy and streaming: she appeared in This Is 40, had a role in the Netflix series Love and was seen in The Bubble. Long’s career reaches back to early genre work — he appeared in Jeepers Creepers in 2001 — and his reunion with Minihan follows the director’s string of genre films, including Grave Encounters and What Keeps You Alive.
The clearest immediate weight to the announcement is commercial: VMI Worldwide’s market push. Buyers at Cannes decide which titles travel, and pre-sales at the market often secure the gap financing that allows a production to lock cast and crew. Because Stung was presented to those buyers on May 13, 2026, the announcement is not just a press item; it is a sales pitch with real financial consequences.
That creates a visible tension. The film is described as gearing up for production, yet its leads are still in negotiations — Long and Apatow have not been signed. Reuniting with Minihan after a comedy-horror like Coyotes suggests a creative shorthand, but Stung’s darker survival premise will demand a different tone from the trio. How buyers respond in Cannes — whether pre-sales come together quickly or stall — will shape how firmly the project moves from talk to set.
Long’s recent visibility beyond traditional film outlets has kept him on buyers’ radar; a recent FilmoGaz piece highlighted his appearance in Ariana Grande’s video teaser ( underscoring that he remains a marketable name for both genre and mainstream audiences.
What happens next is straightforward: negotiations have to close and financing must follow. Given that VMI Worldwide has already introduced Stung to international buyers at the 2026 Cannes Film Market and the film is being positioned as readying for production, the most likely next step is that the parties will finalize deals and move toward a production schedule — assuming the title earns sufficient pre-sales. The reunion of Long and Minihan, combined with Apatow’s rising profile, makes it probable that Stung will advance from market presentation into filming once those business pieces fall into place.
