One of the more visually impressive sci-fi films on the indie side the last few years was William Eubank‘s The Signal. With minuscule resources compared to his big-budget peers, he crafted a compelling tale of escalating sci-fi mystery. He’s now upping his scale for his next feature and has a major star to topline the project.
Kristen Stewart will lead his 20th Century Fox tentpole Underwater, according to THR. Described as an “underwater Armageddon,” the film, scripted by Brian Duffield, will follow the Personal Shopper actress as Nora, part of a underwater scientific crew who endure an earthquake and must fight for survival. According to Deadline, her part is of “a courageous and strong woman who is a bit more jaded and hardened than other crew and ends up in a relationship with another member of the crew.” Production is already being eyed to start this March in New Orleans, so we may see the results by 2018.
“In terms of narrative, I guess all of the usual culprits, David Lynch, [Stanley] Kubrick, all those masters of films that get in your mind,” Eubank told us, talking about his influences. “I was talking the other day, some of David Lynch’s stuff, when I was younger, I really didn’t like at all. I was like, “Ugh, this is so weird and disturbing, not something I can understand what was happening.” Then the problem is, the film sticks in your brain. You can’t get it out and then it will just be there for years and you’ll always go back to it and then I realized, one day, oh, I really do like the movie Eraserheard. It’s crazy how that can happen.”
As we await more details, check out the trailers for Eubank’s last two features below.