Amazon Studios has released the first trailer and poster forDon’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot, which is slated for theatrical release on August 02, 2025. For those who will be in Park City, Utah for theSundance Film Festivallater this week, this film will have its world premiere screening on Friday, January 19, before heading overseas to the Berlin International Film Festival next month. While we still have a few months until this true story adaptation hits theaters, this could certainly make a big splash at Sundance in just a few short days.
John Callahan was just 21 years old when he became a quadriplegic, with the car accident happening after a day of drinking, with his car being driven by a man he was bar-hopping with. He grew up in The Dalles, about 80 miles east of Portland, and, as it’s revealed in the trailer, he started drinking at the age of 13, which he revealed later in life was to hide the pain from being sexually abused by a female teacher when he was just eight years old. After going through extensive rehabilitation following the spinal cord injury caused by the car accident, John Callahan gave up drinking at the age of 27.
Instead of drinking, he turned to art, with a minimalistic style caused by Callahan holding the pen between both of his hands. For 27 years, his cartoons appeared in the Portland newspaper Willamette Week, and the taboo subject matter of his cartoons often lead to protests and boycotts against the newspaper. There were also two animated cartoon shows based on his work, the 2000 Nickelodeon seriesPelswick, which ran for three seasons from 2000 to 2002, andQuads, a Canadian and Australian co-production that maintained the politically incorrect nature of his artwork. Callahan was the subject of the 2005 documentaryTouch Me Someplace I Can Feeland he was also a songwriter, releasing the 2006 CD Purple Winos in the Rain. John Callahan passed away in 2010 at age 59, following surgery for chronic bed sores.
The supporting cast includeJack Black, Carrie Brownstein, Beth Ditto and Kim Gordon, with Gus Van Sant directing from a script he wrote, based on a story by John Callahan and Gus Van Sant. Amazon Studios has set a May 11 release date, putting it up againstAction Point, Paramount’s action-comedy starring Johnny Knoxville,Breaking In, Universal’s action-thriller starring Gabrielle Union andLife of the Party, Warner Bros. comedy starring Melissa McCarthy and Gillian Jacobs. Take a look at the new trailer and poster below, courtesy ofAmazon Studios YouTube.
