Edgar Wright to direct kidnapping thriller The Chain

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Director Edgar Wright's films have always had a healthy dose of comedy; even when he was dealing with zombies in SHAUN OF THE DEAD, the movie was a comedy. Now he's in post-production on a film he has described as his first "straight-up psychological horror thriller", LAST NIGHT IN SOHO, and it sounds like he's going to stick with straight-up thrills for his next project.

Having acquired the film rights to author Adrian McKinty's 2019 novel THE CHAIN in a seven figure deal, Universal Pictures has hired Wright to direct the adaptation.

THE CHAIN tells the story of 

Rachel, who learns that her 11-year-old daughter has been kidnapped. The only way to get her back is to kidnap another child. Her daughter will be released only when that next victim’s parents kidnap another child. If Rachel doesn’t kidnap another child, or if that child’s parents don’t kidnap a child, her daughter will be murdered. She is now part of The Chain, a terrifying and meticulous chain letter-like kidnapping scheme that turns parents from victims into criminals.

What the masterminds behind The Chain know is that parents will do anything for their children. But what they don’t know is that in Rachel they have finally met their match, as she is smart and tough enough to have survived a bout with cancer and is determined to break The Chain while getting her daughter back. 

Jane Goldman (KICK-ASS, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, the KINGSMAN films) is writing the screenplay. Wright will be producing the film with Nira Park through their company Complete Fiction, along with Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan of Working Title and The Story Factory's Shane Salerno. Universal Executive Vice President of Production Matt Reilly is overseeing for the studio.

I haven't read the novel (you can pick up a copy of it HERE), but it sounds like THE CHAIN has the makings of a great thriller and I look forward to seeing what Wright will do with it.