James Wan's production company Atomic Monster is producing a series called Archive 81 for the Netflix streaming service, and the show has just found its leads: Mamoudou Athie, who is currently working on JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION, and Dina Shihabi of the shows Altered Carbon and Jack Ryan.
Stranger Things director Rebecca Thomas is set to direct half of the eight episodes that will make up the first season of Archive 81. The show is inspired by a supernatural horror podcast and has Rebecca Sonnenshine of The Boys and The Vampire Diaries writing scripts and serving as showrunner. Paul Harris Boardman, who has worked with Scott Derrickson on multiple projects, is also on board as a writer and will be executive producing the show alongside Thomas, Wan, and Michael Clear. Rob Hackett is a co-executive producer, and the podcast's creators Marc Sollinger and Daniel Powell are co-producing.
The Netflix series will tell the following story:
When archivist Dan Turner (Athie) takes a mysterious job restoring a collection of damaged videotapes from 1994, he finds himself reconstructing the work of documentary filmmaker Melody Pendras (Shihabi) and her investigation into a dangerous cult. As Dan is drawn into Melody’s story, he becomes convinced he can save her from the terrifying end she met 25 years ago.
Sonnenshine had this to say about the project:
With Archive 81, we're hoping to give the supernatural horror genre a new twist — while keeping a dark, deeply emotional romance as its core. Alongside the talented Mamoudou Athie and Dina Shihabi, and visionary partners Atomic Monster and Rebecca Thomas, I'm excited to take Netflix viewers on a terrifying and visually thrilling adventure."
This sounds interesting to me. I look forward to seeing how Archive 81 will turn out.