Netflix Adds Gus Van Sant's 'Dead Man's Wire' Starring Bill Skarsgård

Gus Van Sant returned to the big screen with Dead Man's Wire, a 2025 biographical crime drama that expanded into theaters early in 2026 and is now on Netflix. Best known for sensitive dramas, Van Sant channels his earlier indie streak to tell a pitch-black thriller set around a 1970s hostage crisis.

The story follows Tony Kiritsis, who in the winter of 1977 takes Meridian Mortgage Company president Richard Hall hostage with a sawed-off shotgun rigged to a wire that will trigger if he tries to flee. Tony believes he was cheated out of profits on land he brought to the company, which is owned by Richard's father, M.L., played by Al Pacino—an echo of Dog Day Afternoon's era and tone.

Bill Skarsgård turns in a revelatory dramatic performance as Tony, mixing restraint with a volatile physicality that makes the character feel like a ticking time bomb.

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