Everyone knows the name, but there’s a lot more to his story than you think.

UNABOM tells the story of the Unabomber, the anarchic killer who terrorized the United States for nearly 20 years. Jacob Tremblay will star as the young Ted Kaczynski, with Russell Crowe playing a controversial Harvard professor. 

“UNABOM is a story about a young man who feels increasingly disenfranchised by society and decides to take up violence as a means of revenge,” director Janus Metz tells Tudum. “We crosscut between two timelines, roughly speaking: the making of the Unabomber and the capture of the Unabomber.”

The new film is directed by Metz (Borg vs McEnroe, All the Old Knives) from a script by Sam Chalsen & Nelson Greaves (TV’s Sleepy Hollow). Sophie Cassidy produces for 2.0 Entertainment, in association with MRC. Don Lee, Sam Chalsen, and Nelson Graves serve as executive producers. Read on to learn more.

What is UNABOM about?

Inspired by true events, UNABOM follows Ted Kaczynski’s (Jacob Tremblay) transformation from Harvard prodigy into the infamous Unabomber. Subjected to controversial psychological experiments by Professor Henry Murray (Russell Crowe), Kaczynski’s troubled past resurfaces decades later when his manhunt, led by FBI agent Joanne Miller (Shailene Woodley), brings to light the chilling consequences of ambition and isolation.

“I was fascinated by the fact that the hunt for the Unabomber was the FBI’s longest and most expensive operation to date,” Metz says. “But what really drew me in was the story about Ted Kaczynski’s years at Harvard when he was a young math student. This was a side to the story I didn’t know about; it helps uncover a very dark chapter in American history.”

What does UNABOM mean?

The film’s title (and the “Unabomber” moniker) is drawn from the FBI’s code name for the Kaczynski case: UNABOM, which stands for UNiversity and Airline BOMbing. 

Who’s in the cast of UNABOM?

So far, the cast of UNABOM includes:

• Jacob Tremblay (Sovereign, Room) as the young Ted Kaczynski
• Russell Crowe (Gladiator) as Henry Murray, Kaczynski’s psychology professor at Harvard
• Shailene Woodley (The Descendants, Divergent) as FBI agent Joanne Miller, the woman tasked with hunting down Kaczynski
• Annabelle Wallis (Peaky Blinders, Malignant) as Christiana Morgan, Professor Murray's academic partner and co-director of the Harvard Psychological Clinic
• Alexander Ludwig (Earth Abides)
• Steven Ogg (Snowpiercer, The Walking Dead)
• Marc Menchaca (The Dead of Winter, Dexter: Resurrection)

“Jacob Tremblay is an immensely talented young actor,” Metz says. “He has a sensitivity that feels perfect for my vision of Ted when he was a young student at Harvard. There’s a vulnerability and intelligence to Jacob’s look and performance that this story needs. I was convinced that Jacob was right for the part after our first conversation and it has been a huge pleasure to now finally be able to do the work and hone in on the character with him.”

When will UNABOM be on Netflix?

Filming for UNABOM is underway. Stay tuned for an official release date.