More and more storytellers are catching on to the idea that mermaids are actually dangerous creatures. Wild Eye Releasing recently released MERMAID'S SONG, Freeform has the mermaid-based television series Siren going on, a couple weeks ago Shout! Studios acquired the U.S. rights to a Russian mermaid horror film called THE MERMAID: LAKE OF THE DEAD (pictured above), and now Branded Pictures Entertainment is moving forward with an adaptation of author Mira Grant's mermaid thriller ROLLING IN THE DEEP.
Published in 2015, Grant's novel (you can pick up a copy HERE) has the following description:
When the Imagine Network commissioned a documentary on mermaids, to be filmed from the cruise ship Atargatis, they expected what they had always received before: an assortment of eyewitness reports that proved nothing, some footage that proved even less, and the kind of ratings that only came from peddling imaginary creatures to the masses. They didn't expect actual mermaids. They certainly didn't expect those mermaids to have teeth.
This is the story of the Atargatis, lost at sea with all hands. Some have called it a hoax; others have called it a maritime tragedy. Whatever the truth may be, it will only be found below the bathypelagic zone in the Mariana Trench… and the depths are very good at keeping secrets.
Mary Lambert, director of the 1989 version of PET SEMATARY, is attached to direct ROLLING IN THE DEEP from a screenplay by Sean Hood, whose credits include CUBE 2: HYPERCUBE, HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION, THE CROW: WICKED PRAYER, and the 2011 CONAN THE BARBARIAN. I might have used a pseudonym on a couple of those if I were Hood, but maybe he's on to something good with this film.
The script is said to center on
an idealistic young filmmaker who sets out to the Mariana Trench with a small crew to film a faux documentary about mermaids. But the hoax soon turns real as sailors begin to disappear and the filmmaker realizes that they are under siege by actual mermaids. A fight to survive at any cost ensues.
Lambert had this to say about the project:
ROLLING IN THE DEEP is a film led by complicated badass female characters. I've been waiting to make a film like this my entire career. Our mermaids are not cliché sugary cartoon princesses; they will take you down if you stand in their way."
Branded Pictures Entertainment executive Marc Marcum discovered Grant's book and says the story has elements of THE SHALLOWS, 47 METERS DOWN, DEAD CALM, and ALIEN. He says,
It is meant to be the definitive adaptation of the original mermaid myth that goes back to the dawn of civilization."
BPE founder and president J. Todd Harris loved the book and believes Lambert and Hood are the perfect team to realize its feature potential.
Grant has a handful of books to her name, including a sequel to ROLLING IN THE DEEP that's titled INTO THE DROWNING DEEP. Yes, there is franchise potential here, and BPE is hoping that they will be able to bring a killer mermaid franchise to the screen.
Grant is actually a pseudonym for author Seanan McGuire, who has written around 40 novels and several novellas and short stories since 2009. She's also currently writing Spider-Gwen and X-Men comics for Marvel.
Harris is producing ROLLING IN THE DEEP, with BPE director of development Thomas Pettinelli co-producing and Stacy Title, director of THE BYE BYE MAN, serving as executive producer.
Filming is expecting to begin sometime in 2019.