General · EdgepediaSeptember 17, 20264 min read

Scorn (2026 film)

Scorn is an upcoming erotic thriller film written and directed by Sarah-Violet Bliss, co-creator of the comedy series Search Party, starring Adria Arjona and Kingsley Ben-Adir. It follows a woman who begins a passionate affair with a married man and refuses to go away quietly when he tries to re-cast their love as just a fling.¹ The film was shot in the United Kingdom in early 2026 and is in post-production.²

Key fact	Detail
Genre	Erotic thriller; original screenplay³
Writer/director	Sarah-Violet Bliss, co-creator and executive producer of Search Party¹
Leads	Adria Arjona (Andor, Hit Man, Blink Twice) and Kingsley Ben-Adir (Bob Marley: One Love, Barbie)⁴
Producers	Dylan Clark and Brian Williams for Dylan Clark Productions; Amy Jackson for Unified; Topic Studios fully financing¹
Filming	United Kingdom, 20 January to 27 February 2026⁵
Status	Post-production as of mid-2026; no release date announced²^•⁶

Premise and cast

The logline reads: "A woman begins a passionate affair with a married man. When he then tries to re-cast their love as just a fling, she refuses to go away quietly."¹ Local coverage of the York shoot described the story as having Fatal Attraction vibes.⁷

Arjona plays the woman; Ben-Adir plays the married man.⁴ In February 2026, Deadline reported that Meredith Hagner (Search Party), Guy Burnet (Oppenheimer, Landman), and Freya Mavor (Skins, Industry) had joined the cast, with character details under wraps.⁸ The wider cast includes Ashley Zukerman as David, Josh Dylan as Ray, Sophie Simnett as Sierra, Cosima Shaw as Anne, Grace Molony as Fiona, Sam Marks as Ralph, Izuka Hoyle, Millie Brady, and Wilf Scolding.⁹ Crew United lists Arjona's character as Mariela and Ben-Adir's as Ollie.⁵

Production

Topic Studios announced the casting on January 15, 2026, with production set to begin at the end of the month in the United Kingdom.⁴ Bliss wrote the script as a spec.¹⁰ The Hollywood Reporter reported that Dylan Clark, producer of The Batman, would produce through Dylan Clark Productions alongside Brian Williams, with Aftersun producer Amy Jackson producing for Unified.¹⁰ Ryan Heller is also credited as a producer.⁹

Filming. Crew United records a shoot running from 20 January to 27 February 2026 in the United Kingdom.⁵ IMDb lists filming dates of January 2026 with UK locations.¹¹ Crews were reported filming in Horsforth, Leeds, in late January 2026, including at a health food store used as a location.¹² In York, St Mary's off Bootham was closed to traffic for a week of filming from February 9 to 13, 2026, and the production later moved to Micklegate, centering on Bathurst House, a Grade II* listed early-1700s townhouse.⁶^•⁷

The crew includes cinematographer Menno Mans and editor Brian A. Kates.¹³ El Wood served as lead intimacy coordinator.¹³

Distribution and release

The film's release route has been reported differently at different times. A Production Weekly listing dated August 2025 described "Scorn" as an HBSVOD (streaming) feature for Netflix with a December 2025 status in London.¹⁴ Later trade coverage described Topic Studios as fully financing and producing the film without naming a distributor, and no release date had been announced as of the York reporting in February 2026.¹^•⁶ By July 2026 the film was listed as in post-production.² AlloCiné and Filmow place the production year as 2027.¹⁵

Other works called Scorn

The title has been used several times, which can cause confusion in searches. A 2020 American independent drama Scorn, directed by Jonathan Faircloth Kirk and starring Lindsley Register, was released in May 2020.¹⁶ Scorn is also the title of a 2022 atmospheric first-person horror video game by the Serbian studio Ebb Software, inspired by H.R. Giger's biomechanical art.¹⁷ Separately, the 2014 film John Wick began as a spec script titled "Scorn" before Keanu Reeves's preference for the character's name prevailed, as director Chad Stahelski recounted in the 2025 documentary Wick Is Pain.¹⁸

References

Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 11, 2026; Oct 25, 2026