After he and Josh Whedon cooked up one of the most entertaining and effectively reflexive horror films in recent memory with The Cabin in the Woods, writer-director Drew Goddard has finally announced his next project. According to Deadline, The Martian writer and executive producer is set to helm Bad Times at the El Royale. While little is known about the project, it’s been confirmed that it is a contained thriller with horror and sci-fi elements. It’s been picked up by 20th Century Fox and Goddard will produce, as well as direct.
In other news, Deniz Gamze Ergüven, director of the Oscar-nominated Mustang, has found another feature, and her first cast member. Thanks to The Tracking Board we know she’ll be adapting The Lifeboat, an adaptation of Charlotte Rogan‘s book about a woman’s tale of surviving at sea while on trial for murder in 1914. That lead will be Anne Hathaway, who will also produce the project. The film is backed by Focus Features, but with the director recently wrapping her L.A. riots drama Kings, there’s no time table yet for when this may begin production.
Lastly, ScreenAnarchy reports that Irish director Tomm Moore (Song of the Sea, The Secret of Kells) is in pre-production for his third feature, Wolfwalkers, with co-director Ross Stewart (who worked in the art department on Paranorman). Set in an Ireland filled with magic and superstition, where wolves are seen as evil, a young hunter chases the last pack with her father. But not is all as it seems when she saves a native girl and is soon transformed into the very thing she was set on wiping out. See a full synopsis below, along with the first concept art.
In a time of superstition and magic, when wolves are seen as demonic and nature an evil to be tamed, a young apprentice hunter, Robyn, comes to Ireland with her father to wipe out the last pack. But when Robyn saves a wild native girl, Mebh, their friendship leads her to discover the world of the Wolfwalkers and transforms her into the very thing her father is tasked to destroy.
