Andra Day, Len Cariou, Lonnie Chavis, Alexandra Daddario, Finn Wittrock, And Teyonah Parris To Star In Don’t Go Gentle

Award Winning Filmmaker Deborah Riley Draper Directs; Gerard Butler and Alan Siegel’s G-BASE, Crystine Zhang’s OVAL-5 Among Producers

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, September 24, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Academy Award nominee, Emmy, Golden Globe, and Grammy Award winner Andra Day (The United States vs. Billie Holiday), Tony Award winner and Emmy nominee Len Cariou (Sweeney Todd, Blue Bloods, Spotlight), SAG Award winner Lonnie Chavis (This Is Us), Emmy nominee Alexandra Daddario (The White Lotus), Emmy and Tony Award nominee Finn Wittrock (American Horror Story, Death of a Salesman), and NAACP Image Award winner Teyonah Parris (WandaVision, If Beale Street Could Talk) will lead the ensemble cast of the feature film DON’T GO GENTLE now in production in Toronto, Ontario.

Three-time NAACP Image Award nominee Deborah Riley Draper wrote the screenplay and directs the contemporary social drama. Gerard Butler, Alan Siegel and Dan Kaslow produce under the G-BASE banner alongside Crystine Zhang for Oval-5, Ashley Thornton Harrison, Tyler Levine and Len Cariou. Roxann Thomas Chargois, Draper’s Coffee Bluff Pictures, and Heather Cariou serve as executive producers.

In Don’t Go Gentle, a decorated Army medic refuses to let a wrongful conviction become the final word on her life—only to be pulled into the privileged, deeply strained world of a former judge and his family. As their worlds collide, competing ideas of justice, power. The film is set in Buffalo, NY, 2026.

“Don’t Go Gentle begins with a woman the system has tried to reduce to a record—and follows what happens when she refuses to stay there. Tanya is a medic, a mother and a veteran fighting to reclaim the honor stripped from her, but she is not looking to be saved. She walks into a charged collision of privilege, history, and competing beliefs about justice, value and belonging, where every act of help carries a cost and every assumption is up for challenge. Andra Day has created a sublime, fiercely intelligent Tanya—one whose fight to hold on to what is right, without losing herself in the process, feels profoundly human and urgently of this moment,” said Draper.

“Don’t Go Gentle challenges the idea that strength means suffering in silence. What we accepted yesterday does not have to be what we accept today and Tanya exemplifies that. She is resilient and a healer, For her every new environment and every obstacle is an opportunity to grow and improve conditions for herself, her son and her community,” added Day.

Day stars as honorably discharged army medic Tanya Jenkins, and Cariou plays Lawrence Driver, a retired judge whose history and sense of authority are challenged by Tanya’s presence. Chavis plays Rasheed Jenkins, Tanya’s fiercely intelligent teenage son; Parris plays Ellen, Tanya’s free-spirited, loyal half-sister; Daddario plays Amelia Driver, Lawrence’s accomplished architect daughter; and Wittrock plays Ben Driver, Lawrence’s troubled son.

Andra Day earned an Academy Award nomination and won the Golden Globe for Best Actress for her portrayal of Billie Holiday in Lee Daniels’ The United States vs. Billie Holiday. A Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter as well as an Emmy Award-winning actress, her recent screen credits include Bradley Cooper’s Is This Thing On?, Lee Daniels’ Netflix film The Deliverance, Titus Kaphar’s Exhibiting Forgiveness, and season 2 of the Disney+ series Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Day is represented by CAA.

The Tony Award winner and Emmy nominee, Len Cariou, originated the title role in Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd on Broadway and is widely known for his longtime role as Henry Reagan on CBS’ Blue Bloods. Memorable film performances include Spotlight, Prisoners and About Schmidt. His extensive career spans Broadway, film and television, and he can currently be seen in the MGM+ series American Classic alongside Kevin Kline and Laura Linney. Cariou is represented by Paradigm and Alan Siegel Entertainment.

Lonnie Chavis is a SAG Award and MTV Movie & TV Award winner who broke out as young Randall Pearson on NBC’s acclaimed drama This Is Us. He most recently appeared as Arthur Mayberry in the Paramount+ limited series Lawmen: Bass Reeves, starring David Oyelowo and executive produced by Taylor Sheridan. His film credits include The Water Man and The Boy Behind the Door, and he has earned multiple NAACP Image Award nominations throughout his career. Chavis is managed by Canopy Media Partners.

Alexandra Daddario received an Emmy nomination for her acclaimed performance in HBO’s The White Lotus. Her film and television credits include San Andreas, Baywatch, Percy Jackson & the Olympians, True Detective and AMC’s Mayfair Witches. She will next star opposite Finn Wittrock in Hershey to be released theatrically timed to Thanksgiving. Daddario is represented by CAA, Untitled Entertainment and Jackoway Austen.

Finn Wittrock is a two-time Emmy nominee for American Horror Story and a Tony Award nominee for Death of a Salesman. His film credits include La La Land, The Big Short, Unbroken, If Beale Street Could Talk, Judy, Origin and Don’t Move. He most recently starred in All That She Wants, which premiered at TIFF, and So Much For Love, a first look of which was shown at AFM 2025. He will next be seen opposite Alexandra Daddario in Hershey, releasing theatrically timed to Thanksgiving. Wittrock is represented by CAA, Mosaic, Weissenbach Management and Schreck Rose Dapello.

Teyonah Parris is an NAACP Image Award nominee whose credits include Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk, Marvel Studios’ WandaVision and The Marvels, Nia DaCosta’s Candyman, Netflix’s They Cloned Tyrone and AMC’s Mad Men. She will next appear in Apple Original Films’ Matchbox the Movie and Gavin O’Connor’s Running. Parris is represented by CAA and Fox Rothschild.

Deborah Riley Draper is a three-time NAACP Image Award nominated writer and director whose credits include the acclaimed A&E docuseries James Brown: Say It Loud, produced by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson and Mick Jagger, and OWN/Discovery+’s The Legacy of Black Wall Street. She is also developing a screen adaptation of Coffee Will Make You Black. Draper is represented by CAA and Marci Cleary/Frankfurt Kurnit Klein + Selz.

About G-BASE
G-BASE, the production company founded by Gerard Butler & Alan Siegel, has produced over twenty feature films since opening in 2008 including “Law Abiding Citizen”, “Olympus Has Fallen,” London Has Fallen,” and “Angel Has Fallen.” Worldwide receipts have totaled more than a billion dollars.

G-BASE’s heist thriller “Den of Thieves” launched a successful franchise, with “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” opening at No. 1 at the domestic box office and a third installment currently in development. The company also produced the disaster thriller “Greenland”, which debuted in the U.S. on HBO Max after one of the biggest acquisition deals in their history, and its sequel, “Greenland: Migration” which was released in January. Other recent titles include “Kandahar” and “Plane”, with “Plane 2” in the development stage. G-BASE recently completed production on “Empire City”, a high-stakes action thriller starring Gerard Butler and Hayley Atwell.

Additional films include “Them That Follow”, starring Academy Award winner Olivia Colman, and “Septembers of Shiraz”, starring Academy Award winner Adrien Brody alongside Academy Award nominees Salma Hayek and Shohreh Aghdashloo.

In television, G-BASE produced the eight-part action series “Paris Has Fallen” with StudioCanal, extending the Has Fallen universe to the small screen. The series premiered in the U.S. on Hulu and was followed by “Apollo Has Fallen,” which was recently released. A third season, “Shadow Has Fallen,” has now been greenlit, continuing the expansion of the franchise.

About Oval -5
Oval-5 is an independent film production and financing company based in Los Angeles and Toronto, founded in 2022 by CEO and BAFTA-nominated producer Crystine Zhang. Focused on bold, authentic, and visually compelling storytelling, Oval-5 develops, finances, and produces films designed to connect with audiences, spark meaningful conversations, and leave a lasting impact.

Notable credits include Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, directed by David Wain and starring Zoey Deutch, Jon Hamm, and John Slattery, released by Sony Pictures Classics; Josephine, starring Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan, which won both the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival; Brian Cox’s directorial debut Glenrothan, starring Cox, Alan Cumming, Shirley Henderson, and Alexandra Shipp; LEE, starring Kate Winslet, Alexander Skarsgård, Marion Cotillard, and Andy Samberg; and Bedford Park, which won the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Debut Feature at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Zhang served as Executive Producer on both LEE and Bedford Park.

About Coffee Bluff Pictures
Coffee Bluff Pictures is an award-winning production company and storytelling studio creating bold, cinematic, culture-shaping work across documentary, narrative, branded entertainment, and advertising. Committed to expanding the American narrative, Coffee Bluff Pictures brings underrepresented characters, histories, and ideas to audiences with artistry, purpose, and broad appeal.

Shannon Treusch
Falco Ink
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