‘The Christophers’ Trailer – Sir Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel Star in Steven Soderbergh’s Art World Drama

Director Steven Soderbergh’s latest film, The Christophers, is a sharply observed comedy-drama starring Sir Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel.

Soderbergh, known for genre-spanning work from Traffic to Ocean’s 11, examines interpersonal tension and the value of creation in this witty take on forgery and artistic merit.

At the center of the story is Sir Ian McKellen as aging painter Julian Sklar, whose unfinished masterpieces become the linchpin of a scheme engineered by his estranged children Barnaby (James Corden) and Sallie (Jessica Gunning). They recruit Lori Butler, played by Michaela Coel, an art restorer with a buried past in forgery, to complete Julian’s works, and thus secure a posthumous fortune.

The Christophers premiered at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival and is set for a theatrical release in the U.S. starting on April 10, 2026, starting with limited engagements in Los Angeles and New York before widening its reach later in the spring, via Neon.

Ian McKellen plays Julian Sklar, who was once a star of London’s 1960’s and 70’s pop art explosion, but he hasn’t painted in decades and has been broke for years. His two estranged children (James Corden, Jessica Gunning), desperate for an inheritance, hire Lori, an art restorer and former forger (Michaela Coel), to pose as a prospective assistant to access 8 unfinished canvases Julian has buried deep in storage. Her plan is to complete them, then return them to storage, where they are to be “discovered” upon Julian’s death.

In a review from AwardsWatch, The Christophers is described as a “warm and funny chamber drama about artistic integrity,” noting, “In making what is essentially a comical chamber drama about art and culture, The Christophers is well-contained but feels wide-reaching within the context of the ideologies of its characters.”

Watch the official trailer for The Christophers above.