With his 2016 feature debut UNDER THE SHADOW (pictured above), director Babak Anvari emerged as a filmmaker worth keeping an eye on. His second feature, WOUNDS, hasn't been as well received (own our Chris Bumbray gave UNDER THE SHADOW a 9/10 review and gave WOUNDS a 5/10 review), but that letdown hasn't caused us to lose interest in Anvari. While WOUNDS heads toward a screening at the Cannes Film Festival and distribution through the Netflix streaming service, Anvari is now setting up his third feature.
Lionsgate's Summit Entertainment label has chosen Anvari to direct their suspense thriller project DEPARTURE, which draws inspiration from author Martin Caidin's book Ghosts of the Air: True Stories of Aerial Hauntings (you can purchase a copy at THIS LINK). That book consists of
real accounts from pilots who have experienced strange phenomena. Landing at an airfield that wasn't there; planes guided by dead pilots; Bermuda Triangle accounts; sightings of aircraft from the past; airfields haunted by airmen killed in action; ghost warning prevents plane crash; more.
Screenwriter Billy Ray, who was also attached to direct DEPARTURE six years ago, wrote a script that follows
a brilliant Miami-based FAA investigator who is obsessed with learning how a 727 suddenly vanished into thin air and then reappeared in the exact same spot 10 minutes later. As mysterious occurrences continue to occur with increasing frequency in the skies over Miami, the investigation becomes personal when the employee’s beloved wife is on one of the planes affected.
Anvari is doing his own rewrite of the script. The latest synopsis says the story of DEPARTURE begins when
a series of airplanes mysteriously disappear and reappear while in flight, and a young FAA investigator becomes obsessed with the case. The mystery becomes personal when he finds out that his fiancé is on one of the planes.
Ray is producing DEPARTURE with Lucan Toh, who also produced UNDER THE SHADOW and WOUNDS, and Jim Whitaker of Whitaker Entertainment. Brady Fujikawa is overseeing the project for Lionsgate, while Adam Borba does the same for Whitaker Entertainment.