‘Day Drinker’ Trailer: Depp, Cline and Cruz in Lionsgate Thriller

Lionsgate has released the first trailer for “Day Drinker,” the Marc Webb-directed thriller starring Johnny Depp, Madelyn Cline and Penélope Cruz, with a theatrical date of March 26, 2027, Variety and Deadline reported.

The film follows a private-yacht bartender (Cline) who encounters a mysterious onboard guest (Depp). The pair soon find themselves entangled with a criminal figure (Cruz) and connected in ways no one saw coming, according to the official logline carried by both outlets. Webb directed from a script by Zach Dean, with Basil Iwanyk, Erica Lee, Adam Kolbrenner, Dean and Nathan Kahane producing. Deadline framed the project as a supernatural revenge thriller; Variety emphasized its twisty studio packaging around three marquee leads.

In the trailer, a grey-haired Depp frames the story as possible revenge, a ghost story, or something worse—“or maybe I’m just another day drinker,” Variety and Deadline both quoted. Deadline described gun- and axe-driven combat, time on the water, and a dead woman drifting into the sea as a revenge motive comes into view. Another Depp line—“I’ve made a living out of misbehavior. I see no tangible reason to stop now”—sets an unhinged tone, Deadline reported, likening Depp’s presence to an unstoppable force in the vein of classic screen antagonists.

“Day Drinker” is Depp and Cruz’s fourth screen pairing after “Blow,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” and “Murder on the Orient Express,” Deadline noted. For Depp, the Lionsgate title is among his first major studio leading roles since the conclusion of his U.S. defamation case against Amber Heard in 2022; Paramount’s Ti West–directed “Ebenezer” arrives first, on November 13, both Variety and Deadline reported. Prior to this year’s slate, Depp’s last major studio film was “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” in 2018, Deadline added. Cruz returns to the Hollywood studio system after a run of well-reviewed 2026 indie titles including “La Bola Negra,” “The Invite” and “Bunker,” Variety reported.

For Cline, the project is her first since wrapping Netflix’s “Outer Banks,” where she starred as Sarah Cameron. Season 1 premiered in 2020 and the North Carolina-set series concluded with Season 5 in August, Variety reported. That post-series window makes “Day Drinker” her clearest big-screen test as a studio thriller lead opposite two Oscar-winning and awards-circuit veterans. Executive producers listed across the coverage include Dan Friedkin, Micah Green, Daniel Steinman, Stephen Deuters, Jason Forman, Sam Sarkar, Webb, Eric Sherman, Sarah Hong, Scott LaStaiti, Adrián Guerra and Xavier Parache.

That long-lead calendar also lets Lionsgate sequence Depp’s autumn “Ebenezer” appearance and the March “Day Drinker” campaign without overlapping opening weekends, while Cline’s post–“Outer Banks” profile and Cruz’s 2026 indie run keep all three names in active conversation before cameras-to-crowd marketing ramps up. The trailer’s mix of yacht interiors, open water and sudden violence signals a tonal blend of glamour and dread rather than a straightforward courtroom or heist setup.

Readers tracking studio trailers on Hollywood will see “Day Drinker” as a March 2027 wide release that pairs Depp’s post-trial studio return with Cline’s first major post–“Outer Banks” lead and Cruz’s fourth collaboration with Depp. Lionsgate is positioning the film as a waterborne, high-concept thriller rather than a straight crime procedural, with Webb—best known for the “Spider-Man” films and “500 Days of Summer”—steering tone between revenge, the supernatural and psychological unease.

Theaters are set for March 26, 2027, with “Ebenezer” filling Depp’s November slate first. Between the yacht setting, the criminal figure Cruz plays, and the revenge-or-ghost framing in the trailer, Lionsgate is selling a long-lead studio bet: three recognizable faces, a director with franchise and indie credentials, and a release date that gives the campaign more than a year to build curiosity after the first look drops.