Late Fame: Dafoe Had the Novella in His Bag

By The Backlot

@backlotfriends

A woman in a black feathered hat and a man in a dark wool beanie face each other in conversation on a busy New York City sidewalk in winter, with pedestrians and city buildings blurred in the background.

Late Fame is in theaters August 7. Willem Dafoe plays a forgotten New York poet who spent decades at the post office. A group of young artists dig up his old work and decide he was a genius.

The film is adapted from a novella Arthur Schnitzler wrote in 1895 and never published. Director Kent Jones happened to sit next to Dafoe on a plane. They talked for five hours. When Dafoe received the screenplay, he discovered he had the Schnitzler novella in his backpack the whole time. He had been in the middle of reading it.

Greta Lee plays the actress who pulls Dafoe's character back into the world. Sandra Hüller was originally cast and left due to scheduling conflicts.

If you like quiet films about art and second chances, this one is for you. It opened at Venice and holds 88 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

Quick Facts

Late Fame: Dafoe Had the Novella in His Bag

DirectorKent Jones

CastWillem Dafoe, Greta Lee, Edmund Donovan, Stephen Badalamenti, William Hill

GenreDrama

Release2026-08-07

Runtime97 min

RatedN/A

Instagram caption

Director Kent Jones sat next to Willem Dafoe on a plane. Dafoe had been reading the source novella in his backpack the whole time. Late Fame is in theaters August 7. #LateFame #Backlot

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Director Kent Jones sat next to Dafoe on a plane. Dafoe had the source novella in his bag the whole time. Late Fame in theaters August 7. #LateFame #Backlot

Late Fame is in theaters August 7. Willem Dafoe plays a forgotten New York poet who spent decades at the post office. A group of young artists dig up his old work and decide he was a genius.

Greta Lee plays the actress who pulls Dafoe's character back into the world. Sandra Hüller was originally cast and left due to scheduling conflicts.

If you like quiet films about art and second chances, this one is for you. It opened at Venice and holds 88 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.