Courteney Cox has revealed she came to direct "Evil Genius," her first feature film as a director in 12 years, after a chance meeting with Barbara Schroeder, who made the Netflix documentary of the same name, at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Schroeder told Cox the directing rights were available and encouraged her to take them on, prompting Cox to pursue a project she said she could not let go of because she loved the story so much.

The film dramatises the true crime case of the 2003 "pizza bomber" incident that led to the death of Brian Wells, and stars Patricia Arquette, David Harbour, Michael Chernus, Garret Dillahunt and Danielle Macdonald. Cox told The Hollywood Reporter at TIFF that the project spent eight years in development, surviving the Covid-19 lockdown and the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, before finally entering production in 2025. Cox's daughter Coco and Arquette's daughter Harlow both take small roles in the film, which premiered at TIFF on 12 September 2026.