Hulu Acquires Directorial Debut From Spider-Verse’s Jake Johnson

Hulu has acquired the rights to Self Reliance, the directorial debut of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Stumptown star Jake Johnson. Johnson also wrote the movie, which will debut on Hulu this fall. Self Reliance stars Johnson alongside Anna Kendrick, Natalie Morales, Andy Samberg, GaTa (Dave), Emily Hampshire (Schitt’s Creek), Mary Holland, Boban Marjanović, Christopher Lloyd, and Wayne Brady. The deal was struck after Hulu won a bidding war for the movie on the heels of the world premiere of the MRC-financed film at the 2023 SXSW Film Festival in March, which was a festival favorite, screening to a standing-room-only audience.

Self Reliance is being described as a comedic thriller. The movie centers on a man who enters into a modified type of the “world’s deadliest game,” where he is being hunted and gets $1 million if he survives. Per the rules, they can only attack him when he’s alone, so he figures it will be easy…until he realizes that it sounds ridiculous to everyone else around him, and they don’t believe him when he tells them they need to hang out.

Johnson has stayed pretty busy in recent years. In addition to appearing in the Jurassic World and Spider-Verse franchises, the star also headlined Hoops, an adult animated comedy for Netflix, and Minx, the acclaimed HBO series that was cancelled after its second season had already been shot. The series was saved by Starz.

“We’ve been removed from HBO Max but we’re still finishing the season. So thankfully they didn’t halt production. We’re about a week away from being finished shooting,” Johnson shared on Instagram after the initial cancellation news came down. “From what I am hearing S1 & S2 (and hopefully S3) will find a new home, the question is where. The crew really killed it this season. [Blake McClure] crushed as DP. The set design/wardrobe/everything. It was truly impressive & worth watching. I am eager to find a new platform for these episodes.”  

Here’s the official synopsis from Hulu:

In Self Reliance, when a man is offered a million dollars to play a game in which hunters try to kill him, he thinks he has found the perfect loophole: they can only attack when he’s alone. His only problem is that none of his friends or family believe the game is real.

Self Reliance is produced by Lonely Island and Walcott Productions, while Ali Bell, Joe Hardesty and Jake Johnson serve as producers and executive producers include Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone.