Caleb Landry Jones Reunites With Peter Brunner and Luc Besson on Passion Project ‘Down the Arm of God’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Palme d’Or-winning actor Caleb Landry Jones has reunited with both Luc Besson, his director on the 2023 action thriller “DogMan” and the upcoming “Dracula: A Love Tale,” and Peter Brunner, who directed him in the experimental 2008 drama “To the Night,” on a secret passion project they’ve been working on for several years.
“Down the Arm of God,” being unveiled for the first time, was co-written by Brunner and Landry Jones and is set and shot within the homeless community in Texas, where production will soon wrap. Besson is producing through EuropaCorp, while Landry Jones also produces alongside Christian Sosa and Jon Wroblewski via their Roosevelt Film Lab.
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The film — which is being formally introduced to the industry by Kinology at the EFM in Berlin — follows a young pastor (Landry Jones) through a harsh winter in a small Texas town, where his mission to help the homeless is faced with resistance by his congregation, exposing deep-seated prejudices and systemic failures.
According to the filmmakers, “Down the Arm of God” is rooted in real-life interviews and firsthand accounts of homeless individuals surviving on the streets, a direct collaboration that saw them not simply be used as subjects, but help authentically shape the film with their lived experiences. And so, alongside Landry Jones, several members of Texas’ homeless community have key on-screen roles, something the producers say is part of “giving voice to those often unheard and making it a cinematic act of advocacy and collaboration.”
Speaking to Variety, Landry Jones — a Texas native himself — said that the film “comes from a very personal place,” adding that he and Brenner had been “trying to find something to work together on for a long time — and this felt very important to us.”
Said Brunner: “It’s been the most beautiful experience, thanks to reteaming with Caleb, and also the most complicated movie I’ve ever made — not because of working with our unhoused friends, but due to the sheer number of rules and requirements imposed on them. These restrictions expose just how many additional obstacles they face simply for being on the streets. They are not treated the same.”
“Down the Arm of God” has been in development for five years, with the filmmakers immersing themselves in encampments, outreach programs, and humanitarian efforts in an effort to learn firsthand why so many initiatives fail and how systemic structures often work against those in need. Such insights helped inform and reshape the script as they sought to ensure it offered what they describe as an “authentic, unfiltered portrayal of homelessness.”
Their aim for the film, they say, isn’t simply to “challenge the stigma that paints homelessness as a personal failure rather than a systemic issue,” but to help shine a light on the “exploitation and systemic failures within non-profits and government programs, framing homelessness as a consequence of larger global structures.”
Added Landry Jones: “We’re hoping we can confront the public with the perspectives and that they have and stereotypes that they have. There are things that I discovered myself through trying to work on this film that I would like to see eradicated.”
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