Neill Blomkamp, the director of District 9, Elysium, Chappie, Demonic, and the upcoming Gran Turismo, is preparing to go into production on his fifth feature directorial effort – and The Hollywood Reporter has broken the news that Joel Kinnaman of The Suicide Squad and the RoboCop remake has signed on to star in the film, an alien abduction thriller called They Found Us.
Although Blomkamp had written the screenplays for his previous films (co-writing District 9 and Chappie with Terri Tatchell), he didn’t write Gran Turismo (that movie was written by Zach Baylin, Will Dunn, Jason Hall, Erich Hoeber, and Jon Hoeber), and he hasn’t written They Found Us either. This time he’ll be working from a script written by Jeremy Slater (Moon Knight).
They Found Us will 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.
While the story is set in Utah, filming is going to take place in Australia. The plan is to have cameras rolling by the end of this year.
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. AGC International will be presenting the project to potential distributions at the Cannes Film Festival, with UTA Independent Film Group co-representing U.S. rights.
The story of They Found Us sounds pretty cool to me, so I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how this movie is going to turn out. Does this one sound interesting to you? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
While we wait to learn more about They Found Us and its alien abduction action, Blomkamp’s Gran Turismo, inspired by the popular video game series, is scheduled to reach theatres on August 11th.