Tired: When is Reputation (Taylor’s Version) coming out? Wired: When is Taylor Swift’s full-length directing debut coming out? In 2022, a year after the release of the All Too Well short film, Swift announced that she had written her first feature film and would be directing it with Searchlight Pictures. Of course, the person who fangirled over Mike Mills’s movies is down to sit in the director’s chair. She was also invited to join the Academy of Motion Pictures in 2023. But her film wasn’t going to come soon, this is moviemaking we’re talking about and we’ve all seen The Studio? First, Swift had the two-year-long Eras Tour to tend to. Now, it’s been a couple of months since the tour ended, giving her enough time to order some 35-mm. film for her Searchlight debut if she wants to start production later this year. So, where’s the movie, girl?
What was originally announced?
Searchlight shared in late 2022 that Swift had already written a script for her film and that casting and plot details had been kept under wraps. She’s been spotted with Searchlight Pictures’ president David Greenbaum at the Poor Things premiere in 2023, so it’s not not like the movie hasn’t been on her mind. At Tribeca Festival, where she screened All Too Well that same year, she said she would love to work on a feature film with a small, intimate crew. Since then, Swift has directed 13 (👀) music videos and gone on her biggest tour yet. That’s also where she mastered the art of theater distribution. For the Eras Tour movie, Swift made a deal with AMC Theaters and Cinemark where 43 percent of sales went to theaters and Swift would take the rest, bypassing the major film studios altogether. It made a record $261.7 million globally, the biggest box-office win as the highest-grossing concert film of all time.
What would the movie be about?
While we don’t have exact specifics, Swift has been dropping hints as to what a full-length movie from her would be like. She isn’t interested in doing anything in the action genre, so unfortunately, a “Bad Blood” super hero movie or “I Can See You” heist film isn’t the cards. “I think I will always want to tell human stories about human emotion,” Swift explained at Toronto International Film Festival in 2022, promoting her short. “I never say never, but I can’t imagine myself filming an action sequence. If it happens one day, that will be funny character growth. Could see it going in a more comedic, irreverent place. I don’t always see myself telling stories about extreme guttural heartbreak at your most formative age.”
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What if her vacations with Travis Kelce from earlier this year are actually location scouting? Montana sounds like a nice place to film.
Who’s supporting her through the pre-production process?
Within Swift’s friend group, she is surrounded by filmmakers: Zoë Kravitz, Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Lena Dunham, and Shawn Levy. Dinner-party attendees look like a cast list straight off of an IMDb page, so it’s a no-brainer they’d be supporting her upcoming film, or at the very least posting an Instagram Story about it. Since the Lover era, Swift has directed practically all of her music videos in addition to the All Too Well short film, most recently directing Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles in the “Fortnight” video. One of her stars, Laura Dern (“Bejeweled”), eagerly hopped onboard to work with Swift, praising her future in film directing. “She is a real-deal — on top of everything else amazing that she does and is — a real-deal filmmaker, which I got to experience firsthand,” Dern said of Swift’s directing ability. “I’m excited to watch that part of her journey wherever she continues to take it.” To paraphrase Dern: “Speak now, energetic, not-tacky, whatever-the-opposite-of-a-wench-is.” Maybe 2025 is the year we get feature film director Taylor Swift.
