Outlander Star Rosie Day Directing One Hundred and Fifty-Two Days with The Night Manager star Alistair Petrie

Outlander Star Rosie Day, makes her directorial debut in the thriller One Hundred and Fifty-Two Days with Alistair Petrie and Roman Griffin-Davis. Read more!

Published: February 17, 2026, 1:01 pm

There’s a particular kind of enchantment that takes place when an actor who has been poked and prodded and told what to do for most of their life steps behind the camera. They don’t just make a movie, they curate a performance. British cinema, 2026 appears to be staking out the title of year of the actor-auteur. First up was Outlander Star Rosie Day. If you don’t know her by that name, then you will know her as the tough Mary Hawkins in Outlander or the quietly brutal lead in The Seasoning House. 

But now, Outlander Star Rosie Day is swapping the corset for the director’s monitor to make her feature directorial debut with One Hundred and Fifty-Two Days – it seems less a debut and more a manifesto. Starring powerhouse talent such as Alistair Petrie (The Night Manager), Roman Griffin-Davis (Jojo Rabbit), and Alice Lowe (Timestalker) this isn’t just another indie drama — it’s a “a sucker punch to the heart.” 

Rosie Day Evolution From “Teenage Armageddon” to the Director’s Chair

Outlander Star Rosie Day career has been shaped by parts that require her to be emotionally and physically tough. Mary Hawkins in Starz’s Outlander Star Rosie Day, which made her deal with complex trauma, sexual assault and historical repression. Likewise, The Seasoning House (her starring role) allowed Gara to express deep emotions with very little verbal exchange. 

Rosie Day Evolution

Outlander Star Rosie Day has never been afraid to explore the darker corners of human life. Acting, writing her hit book Instructions for a Teenage Armageddon – her goal has always been to “give the microphone back” to young people.

Rosie Day’s Vision

Statement on the production Day described the visceral impact of the script: 

“One Hundred and Fifty Two Days is a deeply moving and powerful piece, with its hilarious moments perfectly balanced by tears. There’s a rarely seen screenplay that makes you experience so many feelings and turns that I can tell you this is a very moving experience.” 

That quote is indicative of the film’s tone. This is not to imply that Day is turning out a grim melodrama. “Laughing” could indicate she’s embracing the absurdity of grief—strange encounters along the way, the dark comedy of hospitals and, yes, the grandmother figure. She added further about her excitement to ensemble:

“It’s going to be an amazing ride to watch, and I can’t wait to see where it goes!”

The Author’s “Deeply Personal” Adaptation

An otherwise undisclosed member of the writing duo, Giles Paley-Phillips (involved from the outset) has co-written the screenplay. He has spoken of the journey as being:

“I’m so grateful to be on this amazing journey working with such an incredible team and creative minds to tell this story. This is really rewarding on a personal level, and I’m very lucky to be doing it.” 

The “personal” nature of this may be that it is autobiographical to some extent: Paley-Phillips has openly talked about losing his mother and how grief has influenced his life and his work. When a writer films their own story, especially one involving personal trauma, there is usually greater truth to the emotional story. 

The pairing with Elizabeth Morris is a strategic one, Morris presumably grounds Paley-Phillips’s poetic tendencies with the requisite structural discipline of screenwriting. 

The Plot: A Pressure Cooker of Isolation

The narrative of One Hundred and Fifty-Two Days is almost sadly poetic.

  • The Hero: A teenage boy (the brilliant Roman Griffin-Davis) who has a raging case of pneumonia.
  • The Tragedy: His mother is receiving terminal cancer treatment as he gasps for air.
  • The Twist: He is prevented from visiting his daughter because he is ill.

A Pressure Cooker of Isolation

He must mourn from afar, stuck in medical limbo. It’s a story about the 152 days that define a life — a “blank” moment during which everything stops, yet everything changes. 

Cast and Their Masterpiece Acting

The casting of One Hundred and Fifty-Two Days demonstrates a conscious effort to mix star appeal with proven character-actor skill. 

Actor Known For Narrative Archetype Key Plot
Roman Griffin Jojo Rabbit, Silent Night The Boy (Protagonist) After Jojo Rabbit, we know he can hold the weight of a film’s soul on his shoulders. 
Alistair Petrie The Night Manager, Sex Education The Father (Likely) Specializes in repressed authority figures. Perfect for a father who uses silence and rigidity (or alcohol) as a shield against grief.
Alice Lowe Timestalker, Prevenge Physiotherapist / Relative Known for dark comedy. Will likely inject the “laugh” element Rosie Day mentioned, preventing the film from becoming maudlin.
Annette Badland Ted Lasso, Outlander The Grandmother (Likely) A veteran character actress capable of great warmth and steel. A former colleague of Day from Outlander.
Paterson Joseph Wonka, Peep Show Doctor / Mentor brings a charismatic gravitas. Can play the “institutional face” of the hospital or a supportive family friend.

Why One Hundred and Fifty-Two Days Theme Hit Deeply? 

Both the book and its later film version are profoundly resonant with our collective experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, though they were imagined well before its arrival. Its portrayal of a respiratory disease that causes isolation and separation is uncannily reminiscent of what people around the world are experiencing. This link lets viewers infuse their own recollections of lockdown, loss, and resilience into the story. 

Under Outlander Star Rosie Day direction, the film turns into a bittersweet portrayal of shared trauma, affirming the anguish of separation and the emotional impact of medical crises on people and families as a whole. 

Outlander’s Rosie Day Find Deeper Connection One Hundred and Fifty-Two 

The film is about grief and the male frailty and it subverts all the expected ones. By introducing the character of the “whimsical grandmother” as a vehicle for the grieving process being non-linear, it suggests the presence of life and death simultaneously and encourages the main character to live while losing. This say-turning laughter and tears up the complexity of loss. And the fact that they’re allowed to be vulnerable men and that is important in itself. 

Outlander’s Rosie Day Find Deeper Connection

The Boy’s vulnerability and need for guidance stand in stark contrast to the Father’s repressed emotions, represented by his struggle with alcoholism. These aspects serve to demonstrate that mental health care, and particularly that of teenage boys and men, can be treated with compassion and realism — before our very eyes, in true Day fashion. 

The Rosie Day & Alistair Petrie Connection

Outlander Star Rosie Day and Alistair Petrie, in fairness, aren’t just colleagues, they have a professional shorthand. Previously seen together at industry functions such as The Uninvited screening last year, it’s probably a safe assumption that their relationship brings a sense of trust on set that you can’t just make up. 

When a director and their lead actor “speak the same language”, the performance is usually ten times stronger. 

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What to Expect: Poetic Realism

Don’t expect your typical “hospital movie.” Since the original book was written in free verse, expect the film to rely on silence and visual metaphors rather than heavy dialogue.

Rosie Day’s previous short films, like Tracks, have told us she’s a filmmaker who can make the most of every moment on screen. In One Hundred and Fifty-Two Days, she is transposing poetry’s “white space” to the “quiet space” of cinema.

Verdict: This is a film about male vulnerability, the absurdity of grief, and the odd people (an “erratic” grandmother or a no-nonsense physiotherapist) who reel us back into the living world. 

Conclusion

One Hundred and Fifty-Two Days would undoubtedly be a milestone in British film making when it is completed in 2027. This film elevates the basic tenets of the best-seller adaptation formula with an organic synthesis of art and commerce. 

Outlander Star Rosie Day, making the leap from in front of the camera, applies her “teenage armageddon” concept to a sensitivity study of male frailty. Alistair Petrie assumes a role that questions his hardline authoritarian identity, with the pandemic shadowing, highlighting themes of solitude and reflection.

What makes the project unique, however, is its subtle narrative — about a boy fighting for breath — told by a director who is dedicated to telling the stories of young people. Should Day get her wish and meld emotional grit with comic relief, she’ll be further established as a sensitive auteur reflecting on the mess of being. 

Production is underway on Britain’s craggy northern shoreline for what could be another classic of modern British social realism. 

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Alpana is Fandomfans Senior Editor across all genres of entertainment. She evolved in the media industry since a very long time, she manages the content strategy and editing of all the blogs. Her focus on story development, review analysis, and research is well-equipped that ensures every article meets the standards of accuracy and depth.

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Disney’s Live-Action ‘Tangled’: Teagan Croft and Milo Manheim Lead a Major Franchise Push

Disney confirms Teagan Croft and Milo Manheim for the live-action Tangled. Explore cast details, release timeline, and Disney’s big franchise plan.

Written by: Alpana
Published: January 8, 2026, 9:54 am
Disney’s Live-Action

The whole studio is behind the Tangled franchise, and the announcement from Walt Disney Pictures yesterday that Teagan Croft and Milo Manheim have been cast as Rapunzel and Flynn Rider in the live-action adaptation of Tangled is just the icing on the cake.

The project, which has survived a tumultuous development process that has included long periods of dormancy and a reshuffling of the workforce, is now being advertised as the cornerstone of Disney’s theatrical lineup for the late 2020s. Directed by Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman) and written by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Do Revenge), the film will be an adaptation of the 2010 animated classic to a “high-stakes musical event” exclusively for theatrical release. 

The selection of Croft and Manheim comes after an extensive international search and a number of intense screen tests held in London in the month of December 2025. This represents a clear and marked shift in the direction of casting actors who have solid musical theatre credentials and meaningful experience in the genre. 

Tangled

As Disney contends with the post-pandemic box office environment and the complicated legacy of its prior live-action remakes, the Tangled film comes not only as a nostalgic gambit, but a shrewd bid to attract the rising Gen-Z and millennial audiences who consider the original movie a key cultural touchstone. 

Disney’s Strategic Reset: Why Tangled Became a Studio Priority

The path of the live-action Tangled is impossible to trace without placing it in the context of the financial situation for Walt Disney Studios as a whole. Entering late 2024 and into 2025, the studio was introspective, after a string of financial disappointments on key titles, most especially the live-action Snow White. Industry analysts noted a waning in public interest in remakes of early 20th century classics, which fueled speculation that projects such as Tangled had been put on hold indefinitely as to prevent any further risk. 

But the tides turned with the live-action Lilo and Stitch theatrical debut in May-2025. With a worldwide gross of over $1 billion, Lilo and Stitch demonstrated that remakes of “modern classics” (films originally released during the Disney Renaissance in the 2000s) had their own draw. This success restored corporate trust in the Tangled brand.

With a theatrical-only release, Disney is making clear that Tangled is to be a major cinematic event for the brand, rather than a direct-to-streaming filler. This strategy mirrors that of the upcoming Moana live action, set for release in July 2026, and maximum theatrical revenue before coming to Disney+. 

Disney’s Live-Action Track Record

Film TitleRelease DateOriginal Animated GrossKey Strategic Driver
Snow WhiteMarch/2025$418M (Adj.)Re-evaluating early classics after underperformance.
Lilo and StitchMay/2025$273MThe $1B success that revived the remake pipeline.
MoanaJuly 10, 2026$643MLeveraging modern IP and star power.
TangledProd. June 2026$592.5MTargeting Gen-Z nostalgia and musical theater fans.

Casting the Crown Jewels: Finding Rapunzel and Flynn

The hunt for Rapunzel and Flynn Rider was all-consuming and ended in chemistry tests in London just before the holiday season of 2025. In contrast to earlier casting calls which were geared towards attracting A-list celebrity names to serve as marketing anchors, the Tangled production team was looking for vocal performers who could capture the emotional complexity of the characters and who had the vocal endurance to perform Alan Menken’s -folk-rock score. 

Teagan Croft as Rapunzel

Teagan Croft is a young Australian actress of 21 years old, who was chosen from a multitude of finalists. Her previous work as Rachel Roth (Raven) on the DC show Titans was key to her casting. To play Raven, Croft had to grapple with isolation and secret empowerment—narrative beats that, surprisingly, mirror those Rapunzel undergoes as a prisoner of Mother Gothel.

Teagan Croft as Rapunzel

Additionally, Croft’s turn in Netflix’s True Spirit showcased her ability to head a family-friendly survival film. From the very beginning, Rapunzel isn’t a typical princess with “Tangled”: she’s a bohemian dreamer and inquisitive teenager who’s been living as an insanely long tag-along to Mother Gothel for eighteen years. Croft’s talent for encompassing “wonder, grit, and curiosity” all at once made her the obvious choice. 

Milo Manheim’s Flynn Rider

According to THR, the casting of Milo Manheim as Flynn Rider (aka Eugene Fitzherbert) is celebrated in the Disney fandom. Manheim is a “Disney-native” talent, with seven years leading the Zombies franchise. From this, he gained an insight into the mechanics of the musical storytelling of the studio like no other.

Milo Manheim’s Flynn Rider

Aside from his Disney Channel background, Manheim has made a name for himself as a powerhouse stage actor, most recently starring in Little Shop of Horrors off-Broadway. The role of Flynn Rider is notoriously difficult to nail down—it’s a very specific type of arrogance you have to convey paired with sincerity– the “smolder” has to be hilarious but the eventual vulnerability has to be real. Manheim’s previous Dancing with the Stars tenure further guarantees he has the nimble body necessary for swashbuckling action sequences. 

Read More :- Game of Thrones Star Sophie Turner Says Sansa Stark Got a Perfect Ending

Michael Gracey’s High-Stakes Musical Vision

Michael Gracey’s selection as director suggests a certain aesthetic for the film. Gracey, known for The Greatest Showman, is known for fusing modern musical tastes with the traditional theater spectacle. This one-size-fits-all template is especially curious when applied to Tangled, whose Alan Menken original score was a “folk-rock” departure from Broadway norms.

The director’s approach to films tend to focus on a “heightened reality.” For Tangled, this probably means that the Kingdom of Corona will be realized in tangible settings, rather than relying on the sterile “blue-screen” method. Backing Gracey is screenwriter Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, whose keen dialogue in Do Revenge indicates that the live-action script will keep the animated film’s sharp, current humor. 

The High-Pressure Search for Mother Gothel

While the leads have been disclosed, the Mother Gothel part is still very much up for grabs. Early reports suggested that Scarlett Johansson was attached, but she departed the project due to schedule conflicts. So there’s a gap to fill now, for the heart and soul of the film. 

Fans have made their support for Donna Murphy – the original voice actress, to come back to the role heard far and wide, and others have brought up Kathryn Hahn as a potential replacement for charismatic, manipulative roles. 

Conclusion

Production is scheduled to start in June 2026, indicating an arrival just for the big screen in late 2027 or 2028. The schedule provides ample time for the complex post-production work needed for the tricky physics of Rapunzel’s hair along with the environmental VFX.

The signing of Teagan Croft and Milo Manheim is more than just a headline, it is the first step in a massive multi-year plan to revive the Kingdom of Corona. The world awaits the lantern launch, and for the first time in years, the “dream” of a viable live action Rapunzel transition seems attainable. 

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Alpana is Fandomfans Senior Editor across all genres of entertainment. She evolved in the media industry since a very long time, she manages the content strategy and editing of all the blogs. Her focus on story development, review analysis, and research is well-equipped that ensures every article meets the standards of accuracy and depth.

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Jennifer Aniston’s Transformation: From Rachel Green to The Morning Show Success

Jennifer Aniston's stunning transformation from Rachel to The Morning Show has fans amazed. Check out her fitness, fashion and fearless role selections to date.

Written by: Alpana
Published: November 28, 2025, 8:31 am
Jennifer Aniston's Transformation

Aniston played Rachel Green on ‘Friends’ for ten seasons from 1994 to 2004, a character whose mannerisms, hairstyle, and love interests defined what it meant to be a 20-something woman around the world. The actress could not be disentangled from the character, it’s hard for everyone to recognize Aniston in other characters. Rachel Green was everywhere, on lunch boxes, in syndication, and in the cultural lexicon.  

Aniston noted that she —
“Couldn’t get over from the shadow of Rachel Green ever in my life” 

describing the experience as “exhausting”. The character was a “poor little rich daddy’s girl”, a specific archetype that afforded little room for the darkness or grit required of dramatic acting. Aniston admitted to fighting with herself and her identity in the industry “forever,” constantly trying to prove 

She was “more than that person”.
—Aniston said

FRIENDS Could have Lost Jennifer Anniston at First

Jennifer Aniston’s whole Friends run nearly never happened because she was at that time already committed to a CBS sitcom titled Muddling Through back in 1994. Because she was “only in second position” for Friends, NBC was worried that they might have to recast Rachel if the CBS show was a hit, and speculated about shooting multiple episodes, only for CBS to pick it up and they’d have to do reshoots. 

Courteney Cox & Jennifer Anniston in FRIENDS
Courteney Cox & Jennifer Anniston in FRIENDS | Image credit: IMDb

Aniston got her big break when Muddling Through was cancelled, and that led to her being cast on Friends – which just goes to show how precarious a career in Hollywood can be, and how one cancellation can make way for the series that takes an actor global and defines their stardom. 

Aniston’s The Good Girl, Horrible Bosses, & Cake break the FRIENDS curse

Helmed by Miguel Arteta, the film stars Aniston as Justine Last, a dour employee at a mall shoe store who has a clandestine relationship with a younger coworker (Jake Gyllenhaal). The choice to accept the part was nerve-racking.  

“Panic that set over me,” thinking, “Oh God, I don’t know if I can do this? Maybe they’re right”.
—Aniston recalls

The film was an independent production, lacking the safety net of a major studio marketing budget or a laugh track. It required Aniston to perform “without a net” in front of the world. The success of The Good Girl and the critical acclaim she received—provided the “relief” necessary to continue pursuing dramatic work. It was the proof of concept that she could exist outside the “purple walls” of the sitcom apartment.

Aniston’s The Good Girl
Jennifer Anniston in The Good Girl | Image credit: IMDb

If The Good Girl proved she could be sad, Horrible Bosses proved she could be predatory. The appeal lay in the “black comedy” element. Aniston argued that “Comedy is a necessity,” but she expressed a preference for the “craziness” of the Horrible Bosses universe over the gentler comedy of Friends.

“Maybe everybody else is seeing something I’m not seeing, which is you are only that girl in the New York apartment with the purple walls”.

This quote speaks to the psychological complexity of the curse—it wasn’t only that she believed producers wouldn’t hire her but she was afraid she wasn’t capable of doing the work. 

Breaking the curse required exposure therapy. By performing in independent films like The Good Girl and Cake, where the safety nets of budget and ensemble were removed, Aniston forced the industry to recalibrate its perception of her utility. 

the psychological complexity of the curse
Image credit: IMDb

Cake is the ultimate punishment to shatter the curse. In this film, Aniston portrays Claire Bennett, a woman struggling with crippling chronic pain and addiction. Aniston quit exercising and wearing makeup. She studied friends with chronic pain to get a sense of what the condition felt like physically.  

She allowed the role to “hurt” her, noting that during physical scenes, she “didn’t prepare” in the traditional sense but rather let the physical discomfort generate a real reaction.

Read More  👉  Wake Up Dead Man Review: A Bold Mystery but Missing the Knives Out Spark

The Morning Show – The Strong New Chapter For Jennifer Aniston

The morning show era (TMS), Executive produced and co-created by Reese Witherspoon is the shift from Aniston the Actress to Aniston the Mogul. The show is more than just an acting vehicle, it’s a platform for industry commentary and power play. 

The partnership with Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine production company created an environment of “understanding, compassion and consideration” that Aniston notes 

“Doesn’t always exist amongst the dudes”.

Alex Levy is the culmination of Aniston’s post-Friends evolution. She is a morning news anchor, but she shares no DNA with Rachel Green. Alex is “complex, vulnerable, controlled, lonely, enraged, self-serving”.

The Morning Show
Image credit: Fandomfans

In Season 4 (2025), Alex has transcended the anchor desk to become a corporate executive. She is no longer fighting for a contract; she is fighting for the soul of the network. Critics have praised Aniston’s performance in this era as

“It is the best of her performances and able to perform mature characters” 

noting her ability to portray moral conflict without the melodrama that sometimes plagued her earlier dramatic attempts. The role gives Aniston a chance to examine issues of power, complicity and growing older in a way Friends never did. 

Conclusion

By 2025, she’s at a place very few could have predicted back in 2004: she’s the boss. On The Morning Show, she plays a character who runs the network, much like in real life, where she’s a producer on the show. She swapped the “purple walls” of the Friends apartment for the glass walls of the UBN executive suite. Jennifer Aniston has now shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that she is, in fact, “more than that person.” 

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Alpana

Articles Published : 90

Alpana is Fandomfans Senior Editor across all genres of entertainment. She evolved in the media industry since a very long time, she manages the content strategy and editing of all the blogs. Her focus on story development, review analysis, and research is well-equipped that ensures every article meets the standards of accuracy and depth.

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