From August 28, 2026, Netflix is releasing a psychological thriller in which Robert De Niro plays a former detective forced, this time for personal reasons, to retrace the steps of a serial killer he hunted years before. The tension in the film, adapted from “The Whisper Man,” Alex North’s best-selling novel, remains high — even — thanks to the constant change of settings: the locations of The Whisper Man in a state where landscapes, city sizes, lifestyles, and even the moods of the people who live there are among the most varied, contribute to suggesting a sense of elusiveness and fugacity.
What It’s About
Tom Kennedy (Adam Scott) is a crime novelist who has become a widower and must take care of his eight-year-old son. When the child suddenly disappears, the investigations led by detective Amanda Beck (Michelle Monaghan) appear to point back to a serial killer who terrified the local community years earlier: “the Whisper Man,” as the press had nicknamed him for his methods. At the time, Peter Willis worked on the case: the character portrayed by Robert De Niro, who is also Tom’s father and the grandfather of the missing boy. Despite years of misunderstandings and emotional distance, and before geographic distance, Tom is persuaded by the circumstances to seek help from Pete: enough to turn the search for the mysteriously vanished child into an inner journey, into the painful dynamics of family life.
Where Was the Film Shot
Directed by James Ashcroft, the thriller is set in Garretton: a fictional town on the Jersey Shore, which the production brought to life on screen through a multitude of real locations across the region. Local outlets report more than twenty towns in at least seven counties, chosen by the production (AGBO) as shooting locations for L’uomo dei sussurri.
The New Jersey
Ultimately, the choice seemed to fall on New Jersey for the variety of landscapes and settings the state offers: here “you can find farms, inland towns, beaches” — the production would have stressed — “and this diversity was essential for the film.”
Although it is one of the geographically smaller states in the U.S., New Jersey indeed hosts thrumming, never-sleeping cities like Hoboken and Jersey City; golden beaches on the Jersey Shore where you can relax on the sand or savor refined seafood with a view of New York’s skyline; an open-air amusement park in Atlantic City — the city that inspired the game Monopoly — with its casinos, concert halls, hotels, and luxury shops; more picturesque coastal towns like Cape May and places where time seems to have stood still, such as Wildwoods with its art deco motels.
Hudson & Montclair
Among the locations of L’uomo dei sussurri, stand out particularly the Hudson County Correctional Facility, a prison still in use that required the crew to adapt meticulously to both the film’s needs and those of its inmates, and the United Way, a historic building on South Fullerton Avenue in Montclair transformed into a prison in its own right.
Plainfield, Newark, Scotch Plains
The interiors frequently feature Tom’s and Pete’s homes. For these sequences, the production relied on private residences in Plainfield, Newark, and, especially for the interiors, in Scotch Plains.
Paterson and other New Jersey centers
Among the locations where the Netflix psychological thriller with Robert De Niro was filmed is the Paterson City Hall.
Other sequences were shot in North Plainfield, Westfield, Hoboken (a city that has seen a thriving film industry in recent years: among recent productions there are the rom-com Office Romance with Jennifer Lopez and The Rip – Dirty Money, the action film with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon).
Bradley Beach
The place where Tom grew up and where he returns years later to ask his father for help is Bradley Beach: a seaside town with a coastal promenade ideal for walking or cycling along the sea with views of the ocean, and a community that hosts many local events.
