'Vegas: A Love Story,' a romantic thriller starring Maika Monroe, Brandon Sklenar and Paul Dano, is in production with Ramin Bahrani at the
EXCLUSIVE: Ramin Bahrani, the Oscar-nominated Iranian-American filmmaker behind titles like The White Tiger, 99 Homes and Chop Shop, has entered production today in Las Vegas on Vegas: A Love Story, a sensual romance with thriller elements that boasts an all-star cast including Maika Monroe (Longlegs), Brandon Sklenar (The Housemaid), Paul Dano (The Batman), Michael Shannon (Nuremberg), and Judy Greer (Ant-Man).
Directed by Bahrani from a script written with Bahareh Azimi, Vegas: A Love Story unfolds beneath the glow of the Las Vegas Strip, where Dillon (Monroe), a gifted graphic designer hustling for work, falls into a passionate, unexpected romance with Freddy (Sklenar), a welder and single father struggling to rebuild his life. As Dillon hides the fact that she’s living out of her car, Freddy’s wary in-laws (Shannon and Greer) step in to protect their grandson. The return of Ryder (Dano), Dillon’s charming but self-destructive ex, threatens to unravel everything.
A/Vantage Pictures, Sugar Rush Pictures, and Noruz Films are producing, with lead financing from Juniper Productions. Described by producers as Bahrani’s most commercial film to date, the project marks the first on which A/Vantage has taken the lead since the label’s launch.
Producers include Berman — whose past credits include Highest 2 Lowest, Air, Rock Springs, Nine Days, and The Birth of a Nation — as well as Jordan Moldo of A/Vantage Pictures, Andrea Bucko of Sugar Rush Pictures, Matthew Lindner of Juniper Productions, Bahrani and Azimi of Noruz Films, and Monroe.
Also starring Beau Foxx, Maximilliana, Dylan Flashner, and Natasha Yi, the film was written with Monroe in mind, sources said. Bahrani and his producer, A/Vantage Pictures’ Berman, came to connect here after forging a relationship through a close mutual friend, the late, beloved producer Kevin Turen. Berman previously produced The Birth of a Nation with Turen, who also produced Bahrani’s 99 Homes, starring Shannon, and At Any Price, which Monroe starred in after Bahrani discovered her. Berman and Lindner also previously worked with Monroe as the producers of her short-film directorial debut The Yellow, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.
Producer Bucko of Sugar Rush Pictures comes to this project after serving an executive producer on Monroe’s box office hit Longlegs. Other credits as producer include Gus Van Sant’s Dead Man’s Wire, the upcoming sci-fi comedy Alpha Gang, and Werner Herzog’s upcoming Bucking Fastard.
“I’ve spent over a year in Las Vegas to write and prepare this film, a story about people living close to the edge, who don’t believe they deserve love, and find it anyway,” said Bahrani. “My leads; Maika Monroe and Brandon Sklenar supported by Paul Dano, Michael Shannon, and Judy Greer. When you have an ensemble this extraordinary then the film can grow from the inside out, revealing itself through the process. And, a bittersweet thanks to my friend and former producer, the late Kevin Turen for connecting me with producer Jason Michael Berman, who has believed in my vision from the very start, and to Andrea Bucko and all my incredible producers and executive producers for supporting me.”
Soon to premiere the dramatic thriller Rock Springs in the Midnight section of the Sundance Film Festival, A/Vantage Pictures’ Berman said, “We could not be more thrilled to launch our new production company A/Vantage Pictures with Ramin Bahrani’s urgent, emotional, socially and culturally relevant film Vegas: A Love Story. Ramin is a once in a generation storyteller and has put together an extraordinary cast with Maika Monroe, Brandon Sklenar, Paul Dano, Michael Shannon and Judy Greer. Andrea Bucko, Matthew Lindner, Jordan Moldo, and I cannot wait to share this film with audiences later this year.”
Producer Bucko added, “I hope our film will entrance audiences with the hope of broken characters finding love. I’ll never look at people on the margins the same way again.”
WME Independent is selling worldwide rights to Vegas: A Love Story, whose EPs include Sklenar, Rodney Propp, Thomas Pierce, Motoko Kimura, Scott Lambert, Grant Rose, Frida Torresblanco, Tomer Shmulevich, Kaoru Fukutomi, Sophie Lane Curtis, Luke Daniels, Richie Walls, Brando Eaton, Lee Broda, Jeff Rice, Renee Tab, Amman Abbasi, Jeffrey E. Stern, Joe Torsella, Giovanni J. Guidotti, Mark Korshak, Pejman Nozad, Caroline Connor, Mark C. Stevens, and Farhad Massoudi.
Recently seen starring opposite Nicolas Cage in Osgood Perkins’ horror pic Longlegs, which passed Parasite to become the highest-grossing film in Neon’s history, Monroe’s upcoming slate also includes Kornél Mundruczó’s Place to Be, opposite Pamela Anderson and Taika Waititi, as well as the Bleecker Street horror film, Victorian Psycho, and Universal’s Colleen Hoover adaptation, Reminders of Him. She is represented by WME, Entertainment 360, and Felker Toczek Suddleson.
Coming off of The Housemaid, the psychological thriller with Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney that has spawned a sequel after grossing more than $200M worldwide, Sklenar will next be seen starring in the Warner Bros. action thriller F.A.S.T. penned by Taylor Sheridan, who previously cast him in his Paramount+ series 1923. He is repped by WME, Neon Kite, and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman.
Dano’s upcoming slate includes Olivier Assayas’ political thriller The Wizard of the Kremlin, which premiered at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, as well as the upcoming A24 flick The Chaperones with Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson, and Florian Zeller’s psychological thriller Bunker. He is repped by WME, Anonymous Content, and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman.
Coming off of Sony Pictures Classics’ Nuremberg and Netflix’s Death by Lightning, Shannon will next be seen in the horror pic Buddy, premiering at Sundance 2026. He is repped CAA, Range Media Partners, and Yorn Levine.
Coming off of roles in Lionsgate’s The Long Walk and Apple TV’s Stick, with roles up ahead in Peacock’s The Five-Star Weekend, Season 2 of Apple TV’s The Last Thing He Told Me, the Marc Maron comedy In Memoriam and more, Greer is repped by CAA, Artists First, and Felker Toczek Suddleson.
Bahrani earned Oscar, BAFTA, and WGA Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay for Netflix’s The White Tiger (2021) and, following Vegas: A Love Story, will get behind the camera on Last Meals with Mads Mikkelsen and Boyd Holbrook. He is repped by WME, Untitled Entertainment, Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole, and Ziffren Brittenham.
