Created by Rod Serling in 1959, the anthology series The Twilight Zone has one of the most popular names in entertainment history, and different producers have cashed in on that title many times over the years. The original five season run of the show has been followed by a three-season revival in the ’80s, a one season revival in the early 2000s, a two-season revival (headed up by Jordan Peele) in 2019 to 2020, a feature film (produced by Steven Spielberg) that was released in 1983, and a ’90s TV movie called Twilight Zone: Rod Serling’s Lost Classics. Of course, there have also been books, comic books, and video games. For more than ten years, Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company Appian Way has been trying to develop a new Twilight Zone feature film for Warner Bros., as The Twilight Zone is said to be DiCaprio’s favorite TV show… but it has been a bumpy ride, with the project passing through the hands of multiple directors and screenwriters. Now, industry scooper Jeff Sneider of The InSneider has heard that Ben Stiller is the latest director to get involved.
As Sneider notes, Matt Reeves was hired to direct DiCaprio’s Twilight Zone movie back in October of 2011, and he was going to be working from a script by Jason Rothenberg. Reeves moved on quickly, so Joseph Kosinski entered talks to direct in August of 2013, at which time the latest script had been written by Anthony Peckham. A week after the Kosinski news, Aron Eli Colette was hired to write a new draft of the script. Rand Ravich and Joby Harold came in to write drafts after Colette, then Christine Lavaf was hired to write a fresh draft in 2017. Things went quiet when Jordan Peele got his TV revival going, and in the years since Peele’s show came to an end… but now it looks like Appian Way is looking to breathe new life into The Twilight Zone and hopefully get their movie out of development hell.
Appian Way and Warner Bros. were likely drawn to Ben Stiller due to the success of his Apple TV+ series Severance, as the set-up for the sci-fi psychological thriller has sort of a Twilight Zone edge to it. Now that Stiller is involved, the project is considered an “open writing assignment” and the search is on for another writer – so it doesn’t look like Stiller will be dusting off any of the existing drafts.
Stiller has previously directed Reality Bites, The Cable Guy, Heat Vision and Jack, Zoolander, Tropic Thunder, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Zoolander 2, and episodes of The Ben Stiller Show, Stiller & Meara, Escape at Dannemora, and Severance.
This Twilight Zone movie is expected to focus on a single story rather than being an anthology film, and one of Sneider’s sources told him it might tell a supernatural story that follows a fighter pilot who is assigned to test the first rocket capable of exceeding the speed of light, therefore creating the ability for time-travel. The system malfunctions, delivering him to a utopian, technologically advanced society 125 years in the future, where nothing is as it seems. Of course, that idea could change if the new writer pitches an idea that Stiller and the producers like even better.
DiCaprio will be producing the film with Jennifer Davisson, while Stiller produces under his Red Hour banner. Gian Pablo Antonetti is overseeing the project for Red Hour, with Jesse Ehrman overseeing it on behalf of Warner Bros.
What do you think of the idea of Ben Stiller directing a Twilight Zone movie for producer Leonardo DiCaprio? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
The post Ben Stiller to direct a new Twilight Zone movie? appeared first on JoBlo.
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