They Found Us: The Pope’s Exorcist director Julius Avery replaces Neill Blomkamp at the helm of alien thriller

A year and a half ago, it was announced that Neill Blomkamp, the director of District 9, Elysium, Chappie, Demonic, and Gran Turismo, was preparing to go into production on an alien abduction thriller called They Found Us, which had Joel Kinnaman of The Suicide Squad and the RoboCop remake attached to star. At first, the plan was to film in Australia, but then the decision was made to film in Saudia Arabia instead. About seven months after the first announcement, pre-production shut down so the project could rework its financial structure while hostility in the region where filming was going to take place increased due to the Israel-Gaza conflict. Now, Deadline reports that They Found Us is moving forward again, with the filming location shifting back over to Australia and Julius Avery of Overlord and The Pope’s Exorcist replacing Blomkamp as director.

When Blomkamp was at the helm, we heard that They Found Us had a screenplay by Moon Knight‘s Jeremy Slater and would see Kinnaman taking on the role of a father who takes his daughter Kaylee on a camping trip in the Utah wilderness, in an effort to heal their broken relationship. When they are attacked by a hostile extraterrestrial lifeform, they are forced to fight for their lives against a humanoid beast determined to kidnap them and take them to an unknown and terrifying alien world. Avery is going to have to find a different actor to take on the father role, as Kinnaman has also dropped out of the project.

It’s not clear if filming in the actual Utah wilderness was ever considered. Filming is expected to begin in Australia sometime in the first half of 2025.

They Found Us is being produced by Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen of Temple Hill Entertainment. Temple Hill’s John Fischer serves as executive producer alongside Stuart Ford, whose company AGC Studios is providing the financing.

What do you think of Julius Avery replacing Neill Blomkamp as the director of They Found Us? Who would you like to see replace Joel Kinnaman in the lead role? Share your thoughts on this alien abduction thriller by leaving a comment below.