EXCLUSIVE: After seeing his Black List spec Woman of the Hour produced as Anna Kendrick’s feature directorial debut and sold to Netflix in a bidding war, screenwriter Ian McDonald has sold another project — an untitled thriller feature pitch — to the streamer.
Plot details are under wraps, other than the film being set in the world of cults. Academy Award nominees Andrea Berloff and John Gatins will produce under their overall deal at the streamer, where they currently have The Last Mrs. Parrish and Fight for ’84 in production/post.
Selling to Netflix for around $11M after premiering to critical acclaim at TIFF, McDonald’s Woman of the Hour is a fictionalized take on the story of serial killer Rodney Alcala and his infamous appearance on The Dating Game in the midst of a years-long murder spree in the 1970s. The story is told from the point of view of Kendrick’s aspiring actress Cheryl, who is unwittingly courted by a killer (Daniel Zovatto) on the show. McDonald wrote the film on spec, with AGC Studios and Bondit Media Capital ultimately coming forward to finance the project. Roy Lee produced alongside Miri Yoon, J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules. Also an EP on that project, McDonald is repped by CAA, Entertainment 360, and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller.
Oscar-nominated for their writing on Straight Outta Compton and Flight, respectively, Berloff & Gatins more recently co-wrote The Last Mrs. Parrish, a crime thriller based on the novel by Liv Constantine that Robert Zemeckis directed with Jennifer Lopez starring. Lopez plays a con artist (Lopez) who targets a wealthy couple — the Parrishes — as her next victims. She infiltrates their lives with the master plan of becoming the next Mrs. Parrish, only to discover that the wife’s life is far more complicated than she could have imagined. Alongside Andy Weiss, the pair also co-wrote Fight for ’84, in which Jamie Foxx plays the coach who helped the U.S. Olympic Boxing Team to rebuild from scratch after a devasting plane crash.
Also recently in business with Netflix (and Jennifer Lopez) as co-writer of its hit action thriller The Mother, Berloff is repped by CAA, Entertainment 360, and McKuin Frankel Whitehead.
Gatins has also worked on the likes of Real Steel, Kong: Skull Island, and Coach Carter. He is repped by UTA and Felker Toczek Suddleson.
