A Small Film With Big Ideas Steps Into the Spotlight

A lockdown drama shot in one house might not sound like a blockbuster, yet Wardcliffe quietly slipped into the spotlight when Starboard Entertainment bought it at Cannes. The movie sticks to a single location—a family home on the first scary days of COVID—where a father and son face each other all day long. No fancy sets, no big explosions, just two people and the memories that keep exploding between them. Joel McKinnon Miller, best known for his cop roles, plays the dad, while Shane Coffey, familiar from teen shows, plays the son. Behind the camera stands David Ferino, who wrote, cut, and now directs his first feature after years in television editing. He met the idea when reading pandemic headlines in 2020 and saw the chance to turn anxiety into art. One day, one house, one story about how long-simmering fights can suddenly boil over when the world outside feels like a threat. Ferino isn’t shy about calling it a tragedy, but he also sees it as a chance to capture the panic everyone felt back then.The project started small. Roger M. Mayer funded it himself through Brooklyn Reptyle Productions, the same company behind the cult horror Antibirth and experimental shorts like LaZercism. Mayer believes low-budget films can still pack an emotional punch, and this one shows it. The rest of the crew is a mix of rising names and steady hands: a cinematographer who knows how to make a single room feel tense, a designer who keeps the look grounded, and a composer who piles on the dread without ever screaming for attention. Ferino isn’t just stopping with Wardcliffe. Starboard also put him in charge of reviving Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, a silly franchise that somehow keeps finding new life. The cast includes David Koechner, John Astin, and Eric Roberts, all veterans of offbeat comedies. It’s a strange switch: one serious drama about lockdowns, one goofy monster flick about killer produce. Yet both projects share the same producer, the same financing model, and the same gamble that audiences still crave creative risks.