Focus Features Buys Ice Cube and Tommy Lee Jones Film ‘Outside Man’

Focus Features has acquired worldwide rights to Outside Man, a new film from Oscar-winning writer-director Brian Helgeland starring Ice Cube and Tommy Lee Jones, according to Deadline and Focus Features. The studio bought the project from Teton Ridge Entertainment, and Universal Pictures International will handle international distribution. Cameras are set to roll in November.

Helgeland wrote the script and will direct. Ice Cube plays Ruben Bowman, a former Chicago mob enforcer who leaves prison determined to change his life. He disappears into rural Texas and finds work under Gus Wanamaker, a skilled furniture craftsman and retired Texas Ranger played by Jones. According to the studio’s logline, the two men form an unlikely friendship, but that bond is put at risk when both of their pasts threaten to catch up with them.

The film reunites Helgeland with Jones, who starred in the director’s earlier film Finestkind, Deadline noted. Helgeland won his Oscar as a co-writer of L.A. Confidential, and Jones is also an Academy Award winner. Deadline first reported the project in April, when Ice Cube and Jones were attached as the leads.

Outside Man is produced by Jillian Share and Jen Gorton of Teton Ridge, Ice Cube and Jeff Kwatinetz of Cube Vision, and Bill Gerber. Helgeland is also an executive producer alongside Justin Bursch and Madeleine Moore for Teton Ridge and Ben Hurwitz for Cube Vision, according to both Focus and Deadline. Neither announcement included a release date.

The deal adds another title to a busy period for Focus. Deadline reported that the label notched its highest-grossing movie ever this year with Curry Barker’s Obsession, which has grossed more than half a billion dollars worldwide. Upcoming Focus releases include Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on Christmas Day; Simon Stone’s Elsinore, starring Andrew Scott; Georgia Oakley’s take on Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility; and Sarah Polley’s The Bell Jar, starring Billie Eilish in her first feature role. Barker’s next horror film, Anything But Ghosts, is due in early May 2027, per Deadline.

For Teton Ridge, the project fits a mission built around stories of the American West. Deadline reported that the company recently landed a full-series order from Netflix for an adaptation of Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove, with Zoe Kazan and Jeb Stuart adapting, and that its other Western acquisitions include High Noon, Louis L’Amour’s novel Fallon and the life rights of John Wayne. ComingSoon described Outside Man as a Western crime thriller.

Ice Cube’s Cube Vision brings its own track record. The company produced Straight Outta Compton, which earned $201.6 million worldwide, along with the Friday, Barbershop, Are We There Yet? and Ride Along franchises, Deadline reported. Its upcoming projects include Ride Along 3 at Universal, 24 Jump Street at Sony and Last Friday at Skydance, and Ice Cube and Cube Vision films have grossed more than $1 billion at the box office in total. For more studio news, visit our Studio page.

Verification: The acquisition, distribution split, production timing, logline and producer credits come from Deadline (Anthony D’Alessandro, Oct. 6) and Focus Features (Oct. 6), with supporting coverage from ComingSoon (Isha Sharma, Oct. 6).