It’s a dream for every producer that the theatrical trailer for their independently made, artist-driven feature goes viral (in a good way) online. It’s a whole other level when a big-box store gets in on the fun.
This was the case for Ryan Heller and Topic Studios, where Heller serves as head of film and documentary, when in July the steamy spot for Wicker, their Sundance-approved fantasy drama starring Olivia Colmanand Alexander Skarsgard, caught the attention of TikTok. The movie, about a spinster fisherwoman who employs a local basketmaker to weave her a husband, found an audience among the romantasy audience on BookTok, earning millions of views. Then, Ikea posted on social media that its wicker furniture line was made out of “husband material,” igniting a new round of buzz.
“It shows the power of an exciting hook in a marketplace where it is hard to get people’s attention, and it’s hard to rely on casual moviegoing to lift your movie. It has become about creating theatrical urgency,” says Heller of the unexpected but welcome attention.
Even before the online notoriety, 2026 was already a banner year for Topic, which soldJordan Firstman’s debut feature Club Kidto A24 out of the Cannes Film Festival and on Sept. 5 premiered Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debutto rave reviews and plenty of Oscar buzz.
Ahead of TIFF, where both Club Kid and The Debutare screening, Heller talked to THR about Topic’s big year.
As of late, it feels like new distributors are popping up every day.
I wish there was one every day. (Laughs.)
How are you navigating the current distribution landscape, and how are you interpreting all these upstart distribution companies?
We root for everybody. It’s a delicate ecosystem. In the history of our company, we’ve seen new companies emerge and really figure it out. We were founded before Neon and then just after A24, and those companies have both really changed a lot about film culture. So, anytime somebody new comes along and decides they want to build a business around figuring out how to connect movies to audiences, we are excited and we root for them and we want to know everything we can about what they’re looking for. What’s exciting is that those companies often have an appetite for finished films, which is helpful in terms of the festival ecosystem.
With Club Kidyou headed to Cannes without distribution, having not prescreened for buyers. With The Debut, you partnered with A24 very early on. How do you decide when to bring on distributors?
We have a lot of flexibility. It really is all about what is right for any given project. We always had a sense that this would be a film we’d probably find our distribution partners for before we world premiered the movie, in part because it just feels like with Jesse’s follow-up to A Real Pain,[The Debut] probably makes sense to launch once. Instead of: launch, sell it and relaunch.
How do you view each of the major festivals in terms of launching pads?
We always have a thesis going into the movie. And this can change based on all sorts of factors, but we like going in knowing what we’re driving toward. We find the festivals can be an incredible platform to surprise people with something. Particularly movies like Club Kidthat you just want to experience in the room.
So, why did Cannes make sense for Club Kid,because that was not your typical Cannes movie. It is more commercial and has more comedy than your typical Cannes title.
In this market where festival sales can be hot and cold, we always want to figure out how we can be distinct and how our film can really stand out. So, in the case of Club Kid, while it may seem on paper like an unusual fit for Cannes, we had confidence that the movie would play well there. It’s a movie with a party culture at the center of it, which was a good fit for the South of France in May. We have a spectacularly hot cast that’s going to look great on a red carpet. There was also an element of discovery. Jordan, coming into Cannes, was known for his writing and his online persona. It just felt like a fun environment to reveal this new side of him. And having an American debut in Cannes is always a little novel. So, all those things to us added up to something that felt like it could really distinguish itself. And then with Wickergoing to Sundance this year, we love the chance for a filmmaker to go back to Sundance with a film. And yet with that film, we just knew there would be nothing else like it.
Speaking of Wicker, its trailer launch went viral on BookTok. How was it to watch that play out?
Just anecdotally, so many people in different corners of my life that have nothing to do with the film business were reaching out to me about it. Like, “Did you have something to do with this movie?” I was in a bookstore in Montana, and they had a Wickerbooks section. I asked the bookstore owner if it had something to do with the trailer, and she said, “Of course, it has to do with the trailer.” It was so much fun to see an audience of BookTokers and the romantasy audience and just people looking for an original idea. Given the cast and the elements, you also know that this is a substantial movie, and serious people made this thing. It reinforced, for us, our initial excitement about that project, which started with one of the best scripts we’ve ever read.
It did seem to tap into a whole other audience.
Sometimes the internet just does its job. So much of what happened was organic. Seeing Ikea posting their wicker furniture with the caption “husband material” really warmed my heart. I’m not sure if that was for sale or if that was just them getting in on the fun. But maybe we can figure out a collab there.
Like a nice ottoman.
The Skarsgard. (Laughs.)