The most telling detail in Lionsgate’s purchase of Wet is not the price, which nobody has disclosed, or the plot, which everybody is hiding. It is the order of the names. When the deal broke, Connor Storrie came first, ahead of Rebecca Ferguson, Odessa A’zion and Javier Bardem, the Oscar winner who was reported as the lead when Alma Har’el’s project first surfaced.

The trades moved straight past that. Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter and TheWrap all filed the acquisition as a stacked-cast deal, and all three ran the same running order. In the earlier reports, Wet was Bardem’s film with Storrie among the names in talks. Now the package that Lionsgate’s film chief calls “undeniable” opens on the actor who broke out as a Russian hockey star in Heated Rivalry.

Storrie’s rise has been fast even by streaming-breakout standards. The Hollywood Reporter noted last month that, until recently, he had supported himself as a waiter. Heated Rivalry, the HBO Max romance in which he plays Ilya Rozanov opposite Hudson Williams, made him one of the breakout names of 2025, and TheWrap reported that its first season averaged 10.6 million viewers. He turned that into brand deals and a Saturday Night Live hosting gig, which brought him an Emmy nomination.

The film slate that followed has been assembled with visible care. In February he was in talks for A24’s Peaked, Molly Gordon’s comedy with Laura Dern and Emma Mackey. He has already shot a role in Sarah Polley’s adaptation of The Bell Jar. In October, THR reported him in talks to face Ryan Gosling in Marvel’s Ghost Rider, which Shawn Levy is directing. The second season of Heated Rivalry is filming in Toronto with Storrie and Williams back in front, and Regal is putting the first season’s final episodes back into cinemas in 4DX.

Set against that slate, Wet tests something different. Peaked is an ensemble comedy. Ghost Rider, if it closes, places him beside a bigger star inside a franchise. Wet puts his name at the top of an auteur’s adult ensemble that also includes Ferguson of Dune and Silo, A’zion of Marty Supreme, Rosalía and Lukas Haas. Nobody has described his role. Being named first in a deal announcement is not the same as playing the lead, and no outlet has claimed he does. Still, the order of a cast list is a message, and this one says which name Lionsgate expects to sell the film on.

The film has moved too. Over the summer, World of Reel described Wet as a family drama in the vein of Succession and Triangle of Sadness, and Just Jared placed it aboard a superyacht. TheWrap now quotes it as a “wildly seductive, high-seas caper.” The shoot that World of Reel said was aimed at Spain is now scheduled for the Dominican Republic in 2027. A seductive caper sells differently from a family satire, and it sits closer to the screen persona Heated Rivalry built for him.

For Har’el, this is her first feature since Honey Boy, after a stretch in television that included Lady in the Lake. She co-wrote the script with Christian Stangeby. “I’m grateful to Lionsgate for embracing a film that speaks to this wild moment in time,” she said, promising “a film that refuses to behave.”

Lionsgate bought the North American and UK rights from Fifth Season and 193, a Legendary Company. Adam Fogelson, chair of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, called the script and package “undeniable” and said the studio could not wait “to get in the water” with the group. Har’el, Christopher Leggett and Riva Marker are producing for Linden Entertainment, and Scott O’Brien and MaryGrace Stephenson are overseeing the film for the studio.

Lionsgate has bought a film nobody can describe, on a cast list that starts with a man who was waiting tables not long ago. Fogelson wants to get in the water. Storrie is the one who has to swim.

Tags: Ryan Gosling, Shawn Levy, Javier Bardem, Laura Dern, Josh Safdie, Rebecca Ferguson, Lionsgate, Hudson Williams, Rosalía, Connor Storrie