Normal is a 2025 American action film directed by Ben Wheatley and written by Derek Kolstad, based on a story by Kolstad and Bob Odenkirk. Odenkirk also stars in the film alongside Henry Winkler and Lena Headey.
The film premiered in the Midnight Madness program at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2025. It is scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States by Magnolia Pictures on April 17, 2026.
Ulysses comes to the sleepy town of Normal, Minnesota to serve as the temporary sheriff after the passing of the original sheriff. A bank robbery in Normal leads Ulysses to find that a criminal underground reaches throughout the entire town.
Derek Kolstad had written a script for Normal prior to filming the 2021 film Nobody, and while working on that film together, he and Bob Odenkirk discussed the project and decided it would make for another good collaboration between the two. The script had action, but also Hitchcockian crime-thriller and mystery elements. Kolstad and Odenkirk further developed the story to the final screenplay, and the project was taken to the 2024 European Film Market, packaged with Ben Wheatley directing and Odenkirk starring.
Principal photography began on October 21, 2024 in Winnipeg with a cast reported in November 2024 that also includes Henry Winkler, Lena Headey, Reena Jolly, Ryan Allen, Billy MacLellan, Brendan Fletcher, Peter Shinkoda, and Jess McLeod. Harry Gregson-Williams and Ryder McNair composed the score for the film.
The companies that the film was sold to in pre-sales at the EFM included Sky Cinema for the United Kingdom, Amazon MGM Studios for Canada, Scandinavia, Australia and New Zealand, Metropolitan Filmexport for France and Leonine Studios in Germany.
The film was selected for the Midnight Madness program at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, premiering September 7, 2025. Later that month, Magnolia Pictures acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film, scheduling it for a theatrical release in the United States on April 17, 2026 across 2,000 theaters, the company's widest release to date.
For Deadline, reviewer Pete Hammond writes "Odenkirk rules this roost just as he does in the Nobody movies, but with the firepower Wheatley keeps shooting Normal manages to exceed those action levels if you can believe it."
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 83% approval rating based on 23 critic reviews.