Netflix acquires Mercy, a home invasion thriller from the writer of Buried

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Writer Chris Sparling made a big splash a few years back with his spec script BURIED, which was made into a superb, claustrophobic thriller by Rodrigo Cortes and Ryan Reynolds. After that, he penned ATM (not so superb) and REINCARNATE, which was supposed to be produced by M. Night Shyamalan but hasn’t found much forward progress in the last few years. He directed the little seen THE ATTICUS INSTITUTE, which came out earlier this year, and then veered off the horror track with THE SEA OF TREES, which was recently made by Gus Van Sant and stars Matthew McConaughey and Naomi Watts (not too shabby). Now he’s back in the thriller business with MERCY, a film recently acquired by Netflix.

MERCY recently completed production, with Sparling at the helm. Described as a home invasion thriller, it features a who’s who of cable TV stars, including Mad Men’s James Wolk, Master of Sex’s Caitlin FitzGerald, Tom Lipinski (The Knick), Michael Godere (The Affair) and Dan Ziskie (House of Cards).

The story centers on four estranged brothers who return to their childhood home to be with their dying mother, and find their bond tested after old family secrets begin to surface.

Netflix is planning on releasing the film in theaters first before making it exclusively available on their streaming channel, as they did with Cary Fukunaga’s BEASTS OF NO NATION this year. MERCY will be unveiled in 2016.

Caitlin Fitzgerald