Jason Bateman’s The Cackling of the Dodos Now in Post-Production After Filming Wraps
With filming wrapped, Jason Bateman’s acclaimed thriller The Cackling of the Dodos has hit a major milestone, edging closer to release — but which step has it crossed?
Cameras stopped rolling on The Cackling of the Dodos on July 12 after a six-week shoot that hopscotched across New Jersey. The Netflix film, directed by Jason Bateman, set up in Upper Saddle River, Cranford, Ringwood, and Scotch Plains, where locals spotted Bateman working with star Sam Rockwell between takes and caught glimpses of Michael McKean shooting scenes.
Behind the camera, Bateman tapped two-time Oscar nominee Matthew Libatique as cinematographer — a high-wattage get whose credits include Black Swan, A Star Is Born, and Maestro. With principal photography complete, the project has moved into post, putting the finishing work of editing, score, and visual polish next in line.
A small-town cover-up
Netflix’s logline sets the tone: George, a small-town farmer, finds a body in a grain bin and, instead of calling it in, gets dragged into an increasingly harebrained cover-up by his boss, Denny. It’s a darkly comic crime story where one bad decision snowballs into many worse ones.
Cast check
- Sam Rockwell — George
- Woody Harrelson — Denny
- Fred Hechinger
- Michael McKean
- Esther McGregor
- Jenn Lyon
- Emy Coligado
- Darrin Baker
- Steve Routman
- Nigel J. Lysaght
Rockwell and Harrelson reunite here after their on-screen pairing in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, this time leaning into Bateman’s taste for offbeat tension and gallows humor.
“I had to keep my knees bent,” Bateman joked on SmartLess in July 2026 about directing Rockwell’s unpredictable instincts.
Netflix hasn’t announced a premiere date, but with post-production underway and shooting wrapped in mid-2026, the film is expected to stream on Netflix in 2027.