About a year ago, Universal Pictures paid a sum in the mid-to-high six figures to pick up Peter Gaffney's spec script DON'T GO IN THE WATER, and the description that this project would be "a suspenseful monster movie" is the only information that has ever been given about the story Gaffney wrote.
Shawn Levy and Dan Levine of 21 Laps and Adam Kolbrenner of Lit Entertainment were already attached to produce the film alongside Adam Rodin at that time, and now the project has found its director: Stephen Williams has signed on to take the helm of DON'T GO IN THE WATER.
Williams has been in the business for twenty-seven years at this point, working almost entirely in television. Aside from the 1995 film SOUL SURVIVOR, he has directed a handful of TV movies – including the kid-friendly horror of SHADOW ZONE – and episodes of a ton of TV shows, including Lost, The Walking Dead, Dark Angel, Person of Interest, Transporter: The Series, Agent Carter, Matador, Ray Donovan, Westworld, and Watchmen. This film will be the 53rd title listed on his directing filmography.
I was sold on this project as soon as I saw the combo of the title and the "a suspenseful monster movie" description, but it would be nice to know a little more about it. Hopefully DON'T GO IN THE WATER will be put on the fast track once the COVID-19 shutdown is over.