Miles Teller has signed on to star in Copperhead, a new thriller from director John Swab and financier-producer Black Label Media, with production set to kick off in August.
Black Label is financing and producing the project alongside Teller’s Lime Tree Productions and Swab’s Milk Boy. The screenplay, written by Chad Feehan and J. Todd Scott, opens when an undercover drug deal explodes into violence in West Texas and forces a veteran detective to team with a young federal agent to untangle a conspiracy inside their elite task force.
The pairing of Black Label and Lime Tree gives Copperhead immediate weight: Black Label’s slate includes titles such as Sicario, I Wanna Dance with Somebody and Only the Brave, and Teller brings a rising-profile presence after his recent turn as John Branca in Michael. He will next be seen in Paper Tiger, which premiered to critical notice at Cannes and is slated for release by Neon.
Swab will direct from the Feehan and Scott script. He arrives with festival credentials — Swab wrote and directed King Ivory, which premiered at the 81st Venice Film Festival — but he is also attached to several other projects, including Fast & Loose, Hells Angels and Night Work. That slate, paired with Teller’s own upcoming commitments, creates a scheduling dynamic producers will need to manage as Copperhead moves toward its August start date.
Practical details about the production remain limited. The story is set in West Texas, but the precise shooting locations and the rest of the cast have not been announced. Black Label, Lime Tree and Milk Boy are listed as producing partners, which signals both studio backing and creative investment from Teller’s company, but public casting and location notices are still pending.
The August production window is the clearest calendar marker the project has released. With an established financier and a lead who is both starring and producing, Copperhead is positioned to begin principal photography next month if schedules align. How quickly that happens will depend on final casting, crew hires and the availability of Swab and Teller amid their other commitments.
What to watch: whether Black Label and Lime Tree name co-stars, whether shooting locations in West Texas are confirmed, and how Swab’s other projects affect the film’s timetable. Those items will determine whether Copperhead rolls in August as planned or slips as production teams juggle competing calendars.
For now, the deal puts Teller at the center of a gritty thriller backed by an experienced production partner; the unresolved questions about casting and exact West Texas locations are the story’s next beats. If Black Label and Lime Tree lock in the remaining pieces quickly, Copperhead could be one of the summer’s faster-moving productions from announcement to cameras rolling.
