Earlier this year, Paramount had huge success with the genre film A QUIET PLACE, which was produced by Michael Bay's company Platinum Dunes. Made on a budget of $17 million, A QUIET PLACE earned over $330 million at the global box office. It was that success which gave Paramount and Platinum Dunes the inside track in a competitive situation for the feature rights to the short film MEET JIMMY.
The short is about
a mysterious podcast that when listened to has horrific consequences.
Yep, it seems we're getting a movie about a killer podcast. I guess it makes sense, as the horror genre tends to put dangerous twists on technology and communication. What THE RING did for VHS and UNFRIENDED did for video chats, MEET JIMMY is going to do for podcasts.
While the short isn't available to watch online, /Film did manage to dig up some more details on the story it tells:
Meet Jimmy is about Jennifer, a young woman who is listening to a podcast about the notorious serial killer Jimmy TwoFingers. He killed his victims by putting their fingers in their throats and letting them gag until they suffocated. Despite the warning at the beginning of the episode (“They say you can tap the killer in person”), she turns on the podcast while she is waiting in a laundromat. Slowly she gets the idea that Jimmy knows that she is listening and that he has influence on the environment in which she finds herself…
Platinum Dunes will be producing the film with The Picture Company. Jake Wagner and Scott Stoops of Good Fear will serve as executive producers. Ashley Brucks is overseeing the project for Paramount.
The short's director David-Jan Bronsgeest will also be at the helm of the feature, with its writer Tim Koomen teaming with Shawn and Michael Rasmussen to write the screenplay.
MEET JIMMY is described as a blend of THE RING and A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, "with a zeitgeist hook". The hope is that it could be the start of a franchise.