Robert De Niro’s upcoming movie sees him play Detective Inspector Pete Willis, a protagonist with distinct similarities to M’s Inspector Karl Lohmann. Although this Netflix-only release marks a continuation of De Niro’s move into TV in recent years, it unquestionably draws inspiration from Lang’s cinematic masterpiece.
Robert De Niro's New Netflix Movie The Whisper Man Arrives In August
In April, it was confirmed that The Whisper Man will be released by Netflix on August 28. It’s the second successive year in which Robert De Niro has had a project produced and distributed by the streaming giant, after his miniseries Zero Day came out in March 2025.
While the actor doesn’t officially have a long-term partnership with Netflix, we can expect him to work with them on further collaborations in the coming years. It’s telling that The Whisper Man is a streaming exclusive without any theatrical run, despite being a feature film, which is the kind of project De Niro would have avoided in the past.
Nevertheless, it boasts a stellar cast, with Adam Scott, Michelle Monaghan, Michael Keaton and John Carroll Lynch all co-starring alongside the veteran actor. It’s still Robert De Niro’s role that’s most intriguing, though, as he more typically plays figures on the other side of the thin blue line.
The Whisper Man Is A Modern Version Of Fritz Lang's M
The first images of The Whisper Man depict a criminal investigation that looks like a ghost story, with the specter of a traumatic past looming over the disappearance of Tom Kennedy’s eight-year-old son. In this sense, the movie mirrors the haunting atmosphere of Fritz Lang’s M, which is especially fitting given how similar the two works are in other respects.
M tells the story of a serial killer who abducts and murders children, with the quest to catch him led by an exhausted detective carrying the collective burden of grieving families. While Robert De Niro’s retired investigator Pete Willis is tormented by a previous murder left unsolved, Inspector Karl Lohmann is tormented by the killer’s knack of evading his grasp.
What’s more, just as The Whisper Man’s killer uses the playground rhyme to taunt victims, the murderer in M is distinguished by his whistle of a familiar tune. The new movie’s murderer is hidden in the midst of its small-town setting, generating terror and suspicion among locals, akin to the panic M’s central villain causes across the city of Berlin.
Unlike Fritz Lang’s classic movie, The Whisper Man doesn’t feature organized crime. However, it does explore the limitations of police investigations when it comes to catching serial killers in much the same way, as De Niro’s character is asked to step in and help his son when all else fails.
M Laid The Blueprint For Screen Murder Mysteries And Crime Procedurals
If Fritz Lang’s Metropolis was the first full-length sci-fi feature film, then M is the basis for all modern crime procedurals. Its authentic portrayal of the process involved in crime investigation through gritty visuals, psychological analysis, and meticulous attention to plot details created the blueprint for pretty much everything that came after it in the crime genre.
Although his movie isn’t a murder mystery in the traditional sense, Lang’s ingenious subversion of our perspective on the killer’s identity is a masterstroke that no other movie has yet bettered. Every modern crime thriller with an innovative twist on the orthodox “whodunit”, from The Sinner to The Whisper Man, is in M’s debt.
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Release Date
August 28, 2026
Runtime
106 minutes
Director
James Ashcroft
Writers
Ben Jacoby, Chase Palmer, Alex North
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Release Date
May 11, 1931
Runtime
99 Minutes
Director
Fritz Lang
Writers
Fritz Lang, Thea von Harbou, Egon Jacobson
English (US) ·