Inside the Secret NY ‘Caught Stealing’ Experience
L-R) Darren Aronofsky, Griffin Dunne, Austin Butler, Matt Smith and Yuri Kolokolnikov attend the Caught Stealing NYC Experience on August 25, 2025 in Brooklyn, New York. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Sony Pictures Entertainment)
A one-night takeover brought Austin Butler, Matt Smith, Griffin Dunne, Yuri Kolokolnikov, and Darren Aronofsky into the chaos of New York’s underbelly.
In the days leading up to the Caught Stealing NYC Experience, eagle-eyed New Yorkers noticed something unusual: vintage payphones across the city were suddenly marked with cryptic stickers and coded messages. For those curious enough to follow the trail, the clues pointed toward an unmarked warehouse in Brooklyn on August 25—a door into Darren Aronofsky’s immersive world.
What awaited inside was one of the boldest film events of the summer. Aronofsky and the cast of Caught Stealingtransformed the space into a gritty crime-themed playground, echoing the film’s tension and unpredictability. The night wasn’t advertised. It was discovered—an underground celebration that blurred the line between city and cinema. What they walked into was far from a typical studio party. Confetti exploded from a staged collision, live bands filled the room with brass and fire, and actors drifted between fans as though they were part of the performance itself. Aronofsky, dressed in white and holding court with the energy of a ringmaster, moved between stage and floor, introducing music acts and reveling in the controlled chaos.
Austin Butler, embodying the rough-around-the-edges spirit of Hank Thompson, shared laughs with Aronofsky and greeted guests throughout the night. Matt Smith, Griffin Dunne, and Yuri Kolokolnikov added their own energy to the Brooklyn takeover, leaning into the immersive spectacle with fans who were still processing that a clue-hunt through the city had led them here.
The event doubled as a bold preview for the film itself. Caught Stealing, adapted from Charlie Huston’s novel, follows Butler’s Hank, a washed-up former baseball prodigy pulled into a violent underworld after agreeing to do a favor for a neighbor. The ensemble cast includes Zoë Kravitz, Regina King, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D’Onofrio, Griffin Dunne, Benito Martínez Ocasio, and Carol Kane, all orbiting a story where survival depends on instinct and nerve.
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For Sony Pictures, the Brooklyn experiment was a statement of intent: Caught Stealing isn’t just another late-summer release, it’s a cinematic event with New York in its DNA. By hiding clues in payphones and turning a warehouse into a living crime saga, Aronofsky reminded audiences of what cinema can be when it breaks through the screen and spills into the real world.
With its theatrical release set for August 29, the film has already achieved something rare—becoming a part of the city before audiences have even seen a frame.
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