Chris Hemsworth is wasting no time between projects. Just two months after his jewel-thief thriller *Crime 101* earned strong reviews, the actor has shared the first official images from his next film, *Kockroach*, a crime drama based on William Lashner's novel that reimagines Franz Kafka's *Metamorphosis* through the lens of New York's criminal underworld.
Hemsworth posted two photos on X from the first day of shooting in Australia. In one, he's fully in character — sunglasses, suit, lit cigarette. The other shows him sitting casually in a director's chair bearing the film's title. According to Screen Rant, the role originally belonged to Channing Tatum, who dropped out due to scheduling conflicts.
The cast has undergone significant reshuffling. Taron Egerton stepped in after Oscar Isaac also exited over scheduling issues. Zazie Beetz, Alec Baldwin, and Rachel Sennott round out the ensemble. Matt Ross, who directed Netflix's acclaimed miniseries *Death by Lightning* and the 2016 Viggo Mortensen film *Captain Fantastic*, is helming the project from a screenplay by Jonathan Ames.
Producer Andrew Lazar has drawn bold comparisons, describing the film as akin to *Goodfellas* and *Scarface*. The official logline follows "a mysterious stranger who takes on New York's criminal underworld, transforming himself into a larger-than-life crime boss in a city where power is everything."
For Hemsworth, the project represents another push into mid-budget original fare outside his franchise work. *Crime 101* earned positive reviews but underperformed at the box office, grossing $72.5 million worldwide against a $90 million budget. No budget or release date has been announced for *Kockroach*. Hemsworth's next guaranteed blockbuster arrives this December with *Avengers: Doomsday*, and *Extraction 3* also remains on his slate.
