CHINA Edition
Hungarian Edition
Cate Blanchett in an eye patch, Chris Pine resembling an intergalactic drifter and a leather-clad group of aliens struggling with their first human emotions: the finished form of Alpha Gang is every bit as unconventional as its premise promised.
David and Nathan Zellner’s science-fiction comedy received its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival earlier this month and has now travelled to the Toronto International Film Festival for its international premiere. The appearances mark the project’s transition from a closely watched Budapest production into a completed film – and provide the first substantial glimpse of the peculiar world built around its remarkable cast.
Alien invaders discover their feelings
Alpha Gang follows a group of extraterrestrials sent to conquer Earth. Disguised as an armed, 1950s-style biker gang, they initially approach the mission without hesitation or mercy. Their plans begin to unravel, however, when they contract what the film describes as humanity’s most toxic and contagious condition: emotion.
Joy, fear, empathy and desire gradually disrupt the visitors’ discipline, turning a seemingly straightforward invasion into an absurd examination of what it means to become human.
The completed film is listed by international sales company MK2 Films as a 105-minute science-fiction comedy. Its ensemble includes Cate Blanchett, Chris Pine, Dave Bautista, Léa Seydoux, Riley Keough, Lily-Rose Depp, Doona Bae and Kelvin Harrison Jr. Blanchett also serves as one of the producers through Dirty Films.
The newly revealed images place the cast in a deliberately heightened world of dark wigs, studded leather, motorcycles and retro-futurist attitude. Rather than presenting its aliens through elaborate digital creatures, the film finds its central joke in famous actors attempting to inhabit human bodies and social behaviour without fully understanding either.
From a Budapest set to the festival screen
When Budapest Reporter first covered the production in June 2025, cameras had begun rolling in the Hungarian capital amid a substantial reshaping of the cast. Pine, Depp, Doona Bae and Kelvin Harrison Jr. were among the actors joining the project as it entered production.
At that stage, little was publicly visible beyond the unusual premise and the scale of the ensemble. The film later continued its European shoot in Croatia, but the production has not released a scene-by-scene breakdown identifying which elements of its finished world were created in each country.
The first images and reviews therefore offer a broader impression rather than a precise location guide. They nevertheless reveal a film that appears to favour tactile settings, practical costumes and carefully composed physical comedy. Cinematographer Mike Gioulakis, known for It Follows, Split and Us, reunited with the Zellners after shooting their dialogue-free creature comedy Sasquatch Sunset.
That earlier film transformed recognisable actors into a family of Bigfoots and relied on movement, behaviour and bodily humour in place of conventional dialogue. Alpha Gang appears to extend a similar fascination on a larger scale: its characters may look human, but every ordinary sensation becomes an unfamiliar and potentially dangerous discovery.
An invasion built by hand
The film’s first critical responses suggest that its starry cast has not pulled the Zellners away from their eccentric sensibility. The Moveable Fest’s Telluride review describes a deliberately handmade production filled with physical comedy, stylised action and an underlying interest in the emotional instincts that hold a community together.
The result appears closer to an absurdist ensemble comedy than a conventional alien-invasion spectacle. Conflict still drives the story, but its extraterrestrials are threatened less by human weapons than by the emotions they were taught to regard as weaknesses.
That distinction makes Alpha Gang an intriguing production within Hungary’s recent international portfolio. Budapest regularly hosts large-scale franchise films and historical dramas, but the city also serves as a base for more idiosyncratic projects that combine established stars with distinctive independent filmmakers.
The film is now receiving its international premiere at TIFF, where it is presented as a Special Presentation. A theatrical release date has not yet been announced, with MK2 Films continuing to handle international sales.
For the moment, its festival appearances provide the first opportunity to see what emerged from the Budapest production: not simply another screen invasion, but an alien biker comedy in which conquering humanity becomes considerably more difficult once its would-be destroyers begin to feel like humans themselves.
