Key Takeaways
- Film Title: The upcoming film is titled The Sheep Detectives.
- Cast: Hugh Jackman leads a cast that includes Nicholas Braun and Emma Thompson.
- Release Date: The film is set to be released in theaters on May 8, 2026.
- Director: Kyle Balda, known for Minions: The Rise of Gru, directs the movie.
After starring in Song Sung Blue, Hugh Jackman will next be seen in the animal-friendly family comedy The Sheep Detectives, which originally sported the title, Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Movie. Amazon MGM has just released the trailer for the silly, but cute-looking film. Joining Jackman in the cast will be Nicholas Braun, Nicholas Galitzine, Molly Gordon with Hong Chau and Emma Thompson. Meanwhile, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Chris O’Dowd, Regina Hall, Patrick Stewart, Bella Ramsey, Brett Goldstein and Rhys Darby will provide the voices of the sheep.
The official synopsis reads,
“In this witty, new breed of mystery, George (Hugh Jackman) is a shepherd who reads detective novels to his beloved sheep every night, assuming they can’t possibly understand. But when a mysterious incident disrupts life on the farm, the sheep realize they must become the detectives. As they follow the clues and investigate human suspects, they prove that even sheep can be brilliant crime-solvers.”
Kyle Balda (Minions: The Rise of Gru) directs the live-action comedy which has been scripted by Craig Mazin. While most now know Mazin for his more intense work on The Last of Us and Chernobyl, he got his start writing comedies such as Scary Movie 3, Scary Movie 4, The Hangover Part II, The Hangover Part III, and Identity Thief.
Executive Producers on the project include Sarah-Jane Wright, Amelia Granger, Aditya Sood, Tyson Hesse, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Tim Wellspring.
Based on Leonie Swann’s international bestseller, Three Bags Full, the book follows “a shepherd who loves his sheep and raises them only for their wool. Every night, he reads aloud a murder mystery, pretending his sheep can understand, never suspecting that not only can they understand, but they argue for hours afterwards about whodunnit. When George is found dead under mysterious circumstances, the sheep realize at once that it was a murder and think they know everything about how to go about solving it. The local cop, Tim Derry, on the other hand, has never solved a serious crime in his life, so the sheep conclude they will have to solve it themselves, even if it means leaving their meadow for the first time and facing the fact that the human world isn’t as simple as it appears in books.”
Three Bags Full was Swann’s first novel, originally published in Germany in 2005 under the title Glennkill. It was a huge success, winning numerous awards, including the Glauser Prize for crime fiction in the debut category.
The film will be produced by Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner of Working Title, as well as Lindsay Doran. Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Aditya Sood, and Tim Wellspring will executive produce. The film will be released exclusively in theaters on May 8, 2026.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter
Source:
Amazon MGM Studios
