Ana Lily Amirpour to direct Cliffhanger reboot with a female lead

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Ana Lily Amirpour made her feature directorial debut with the unique and stylish A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT and followed that up with the oddball THE BAD BATCH, and while her third film will be the "stylized fairy tale" BLOOD MOON, she has already lined up an unexpected project to be her fourth film. Amirpour has signed on to direct a reboot of director Renny Harlin's 1993 action film CLIFFHANGER.

While the original CLIFFHANGER starred Sylvester Stallone, this new take on the story will have a female lead. Stallone's BULLET TO THE HEAD co-star Jason Momoa, who worked with Amirpour on THE BAD BATCH, is in talks to make a "key cameo".

Stallone's CREED II co-writer Sascha Penn is writing the screenplay for the CLIFFHANGER update and is expected to turn in the first draft soon. The reboot is being produced by THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS franchise producer Neal Moritz and Toby Jaffe through their company Original Film, along with Thorsten Schumacher and Lars Sylvest of Rocket Science. Rocket Science is also funding the project.

The CLIFFHANGER reboot is said to be a passion project for Moritz, who has been trying to get the project off the ground for years, and Amirpour has already been attached to direct for 12 months. Since becoming involved, she has gone on a ten-day hiking tour in the Alps to get herself in the CLIFFHANGER headspace. She says, 

I instantly knew the elements of the story I wanted to tell. There’s a special place in my heart for an action-survival movie. I’ve always been attracted to the theme of mountain climbers who, like filmmakers, have a certain madness to them. I love genre and fantasy and in this type of survival film you’re playing with real fear. I am very excited to partner with Original Film and Rocket Science, who share my passion for this character-driven, high-adrenaline story; the survival film is one of my favorite genres. We are setting out to create a thrill-ride on the mountain which taps into the primal side of an action movie, where you see what a person is capable of doing to survive in the most extreme situations, pushed to the limits. Add to that some high-stakes espionage and a badass female mountain climber as the lead and it becomes a truly epic reinvention of what made the original Cliffhanger movie so fun and so thrilling."

Moritz added: 

I’ve been wanting to re-make this adrenaline filled survival thriller with a strong female protagonist – both in front of and behind the camera – for some time. The elements came together with Ana Lily and Rocket Science and we look forward to gathering the rest of the pieces. I’ve always wanted to make the movies I want to see — big at their core with characters which connect to the audience while simultaneously encouraging them to leave their house and go to a theater. Cliffhanger is just that, in what we hope will be the first of an entirely new franchise."

Amirpour is set to begin filming BLOOD MOON, which will star Kate Hudson, in New Orleans next month. With a budget in the $70 million range, the CLIFFHANGER reboot is aiming to film in the spring of 2020.

The original CLIFFHANGER had the following synopsis:

 For Rocky Mountain Rescue, the mission is almost routine: locate five climbers. With the woman he loves and his best friend, Gabe Walker braves the icy peaks only to discover that the distress call is really a trap set by merciless international terrorist Eric Qualen. Now millions of dollars and their own lives hang in the balance. Against explosive firepower, bitter cold, and dizzying heights, Walker must outwit Qualen in a deadly game of hide-and-seek.

CLIFFHANGER was awesome, and I'm open to checking out what Amirpour can do with the concept.

In addition to her two feature films, Amirpour has also directed episodes of Legion, Castle Rock, and The Twilight Zone.