| VARIETY M. Night Shyamalan and Media Rights Capital have formalized the first project in their three-picture deal to hatch fright films. They've set Brian Nelson ("30 Days of Night") to write "Devil," which "Quarantine" helmers John Erick and Drew Dowdle will direct.
Supernatural thriller is based on an original story by Shyamalan, who'll produce with Sam Mercer under the Night Chronicles banner. The Dowdle siblings will be executive producers. The film will be PG-13 and will begin production next year.
MRC set the Night Chronicles as a financing and production partnership with Shyamalan in July. The company's goal is to generate one genre film per year over three years, with Shyamalan hatching the ideas and overseeing the selection of talent and the creative direction. Shyamalan will co-own the film copyrights and retain artistic control while MRC makes distribution deals, as it does on all the pictures it finances.
Shyamalan, who next directs "The Last Airbender" for Paramount and Nickelodeon, got an ownership stake in his most recent directing effort, "The Happening," in a co-financing configuration between India-based UTV and 20th Century Fox. |