The Incomer director Louis Paxton has confirmed to The Feature that his next film, The Waffle House Index, will shoot next summer, and offered an early look at what we can expect.
The Apple Original Films and Plan B project, which stars Inde Navarrette, was first announced in September. Speaking to The Feature as part of our BAFTA Breakthrough 2026 interviews, Paxton confirmed the timeline: “I’m attached to direct a feature with Plan B and Apple, which has a Black List script called The Waffle House Index. We’ve got Inde Navarrette to play the lead, and we’re shooting that summer next year.”
Asked what to expect, Paxton kept the plot under wraps. “The less you know about it, the better,” he said. “It’s a mash-up that incorporates lots of different kinds of influences and threads. I would say it’s primarily horror, but it has elements of humour as well. I’ve never read anything like it.”
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He added that the script stood out because it felt like the kind of original film audiences have embraced recently: “Things like Weapons and Obsession. It’s original, it’s really smart, and it’s different, and that’s what excites me about it.”
It’s written by Andrew Nunnelly and originally appeared on the 2025 Black List of the most-liked unproduced screenplays. Apple reportedly acquired the project for seven figures, with Navarrette also serving as an executive producer. The title refers to a real measure used by US emergency management to gauge the severity of a disaster, based on whether local Waffle House restaurants stay open.
Paxton’s debut feature, The Incomer, starring Domhnall Gleeson, Gayle Rankin and Grant O’Rourke, premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the NEXT Innovator Award, before opening this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival. He has recently been selected for BAFTA Breakthrough 2026 and is currently writing and directing a number of projects set in Scotland.
Read our full BAFTA Breakthrough 2026 deep dive here.
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