Here's Everything We Know About The New Thriller 'Pet Shop Days'

Pet Shop Days, a new grimy, gay thriller starring Willem Dafoe is headed to the Venice Film Festival.

Helmed by Olmo Schnabel, son of the Oscar nominated director Julian Schnabel—who directed Dafoe in At Eternity’s Gate—is set in New York and pays homage to the gritty urban movies from the ‘80s and ‘90s made by legends Brian DePalma, John Cassavetes, and Martin Scorsese.

Pet Shop Days follows two men, one a privileged and impulsive drifter named Alejandro, and the other a young pet-shop employee named Jack who is running from his authoritarian father. Jack Irv, Dario Yazbek Bernal star as the two men who “enter a whirlwind romance sending them down the rabbit hole of drugs and depravity in Manhattan’s underworld,” according to the official synopsis.

Peter Sarsgaard and Emmanuelle Seigner also star as people who get caught in the web of chaos created by Alejandro and Jack.

While a full trailer has yet to be released for this LGBTQ+ romantic thriller, there is a 54 second clip that shows Dafoe and his wife (Seigner) coming home to find their son (Bernal) clad in a white slip dress and clip-on earrings that he had clearly stolen from his mom's closet. Dafoe threatens Bernal, who takes off the earrings before running out the door shouting “I’m sorry” over and over.

“This is the perfect New York story in that anything can happen,” Schnabel told Variety. “That’s how it was growing up. You meet a complete stranger, you’re enamored or infatuated with them, and then two weeks later you realize they’re completely different.”

Schnabel was so confident in his film that he sent an early cut to Scorsese in hopes of getting feedback from the Oscar-winning director. Scorsese liked the film so much he signed on as executive producer—being a nepo-baby pays off!

“I watched his films, Brian De Palma’s films, Cassavetes’ films, I thought that the movie was very grounded in other New York stories,” Schnabel said. “When I heard that he liked it, I thought, okay, I might as well ask him and see what he says and he kindly accepted my offer. I’m forever grateful to even be associated with him.”

Pet Shop Days premiers on Sept. 3 at the Venice Film Festival.