‘Imitation Game’ Director Picks Up Sci-Fi Love Story From ‘Doctor Strange’ Writer
Jon Spaihts’Passengersis one of those scripts that’s been kicking around Hollywood for years, attracting lots of attention but never quite getting off the ground. Up until recently, it was going to be directed byBryan KirkwithKeanu Reevesstarring.
But now that that’s no longer the case,The Imitation GamedirectorMorten Tyldumwill be the next to take a crack at it. More on thePassengersMorten Tyldum project after the jump.
Deadlinereports Tyldum is in early talks to directPassengers. The sci-fi love story unfolds on a spaceship transporting human cargo to a distant planet. An accident causes one of the humans to thaw from cryogenic slumber nearly a century earlier than planned. Unwilling to spend the next several decades alone, he wakes up a female passenger.
Reeves was already attached toPassengersby the time it landed on the2007 Black List. Gabriele Muccinocircled the film in 2010but it never progressed.Passengerscame back to lifein 2013 with Kirk in the director’s chair and The Weinstein Co. set to distribute.Reese Witherspoonwas set for the female lead, and later replaced byRachel McAdams.
Then last year,Passengerslost both The Weinstein Co. and McAdams. Focus Featuresentered negotiationsto pick it up shortly afterward. Ultimately, Sonyclosed a dealto acquirePassengerslast month.Michael De Luca,Neal Moritz, andOri Marmurare producing. No cast is on board at this point.
Tyldum is a Norwegian filmmaker who made his English-language debut last year withThe Imitation Game. The Alan Turing biopic has been nominated for eight Oscars in all, including Best Director for Tyldum, Best Actor for Benedict Cumberbatch, and Best Picture. Prior to that, he was best known in the U.S. for Headhunters, a Jo Nesbø adaptation that starred Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.
