‘Paper Tiger’ Trailer: Driver, Johansson, Teller in James Gray’s NYC Drama

Neon has released the official trailer for James Gray’s Paper Tiger, the 1980s New York crime drama starring Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, and Miles Teller, with a theatrical launch set for mid-November, Deadline reported on Tuesday. The film, which premiered in competition at Cannes in May and is booked to open the New York Film Festival at the end of September, follows two brothers whose scheme draws the Russian mafia into their Queens family’s fragile American Dream.

According to Deadline, Driver plays Gary Pearl, an ex-cop, while Teller portrays his brother Isaac, an engineer. Johansson plays Isaac’s wife, Hester, who carries her own turmoil as the brothers become entangled in a plan that threatens bonds and safety. Gray has said the story is loosely based on his own family’s encounter with the Russian mafia in 1980s New York, a personal root that has shaped the project’s awards-season positioning after a reported 10-minute standing ovation at Cannes.

Collider covered the same Tuesday trailer drop, noting that Neon’s new look arrives as Driver prepares for other high-profile roles and reunites on screen with Johansson after Marriage Story. Collider’s report placed the film’s theatrical window in November and highlighted an 83 percent Rotten Tomatoes critics score from early festival reviews, while emphasizing Gray’s return to features after 2022’s Armageddon Time.

Deadline’s synopsis centers on 1986 Queens, where Gary’s scheme pulls Isaac into a criminal underworld that frays family trust and puts relatives at risk. Pete Hammond’s Cannes review for Deadline called the film “superbly crafted,” praising Gray’s ability to twist a crime-genre tale into something fresh and pulse-pounding and crediting the Driver–Johansson–Teller casting with giving audiences a stake in recognizable characters. Neon acquired the title just ahead of Cannes, which added it late to the 2026 Competition lineup.

The November theatrical date places Paper Tiger squarely in awards conversation territory after its festival circuit run. Deadline lists a November 13 start for the theatrical run; Collider’s companion coverage cites a November 20 theatrical date, a discrepancy typical of rolling limited-release calendars that can firm up closer to opening. Either way, the film is positioned as a prestige crime drama rather than a wide summer play, with Gray writing and directing and a producer roster that includes Anthony Katagas, Rodrigo Teixeira, and Gray among others listed by Collider.

For streaming-era audiences still tracking theatrical event movies, the trailer’s value is less about surprise casting than about confirming tone: period Queens streets, brotherly loyalty under pressure, and a mafia plot that Gray treats as family tragedy as much as genre machinery. Driver’s Gary is framed as the catalyst whose choices endanger Isaac’s steadier path; Johansson’s Hester anchors the domestic stakes; Teller’s Isaac supplies the engineer’s pragmatic counterweight as the Russian-mafia subplot closes in.

Industry interest also reflects Gray’s track record with grounded, location-specific dramas and star-driven prestige titles, from Ad Astra with Brad Pitt to the intimate New York textures of Armageddon Time. Paper Tiger extends that line into 1980s immigrant-adjacent Queens crime storytelling without abandoning the director’s preference for character over spectacle. Festival audiences already saw the finished cut; the new trailer is Neon’s public invitation for awards voters and general audiences to catch up before November.

Marketing around the trailer also leans on the Marriage Story reunion between Driver and Johansson, a pairing that already proved commercially and critically potent in a contemporary divorce drama and now shifts into period crime territory. Teller’s presence adds another familiar box-office face after Top Gun: Maverick, giving Neon three recognizable leads for specialty and multiplex crossover bookings once the limited run expands.

As NYFF approaches and the awards calendar tightens, expect more featurettes, critic revisits, and release-date confirmations. For Tuesday’s news cycle, the concrete update is simple: Neon’s official trailer is out, the Driver–Johansson–Teller reunion is the marketing center of gravity, and Paper Tiger is locked as a November theatrical contender built on Cannes heat and a Queens family crime story Gray says he knows from home.