How’s this for a mega team-up? Captain Marvel herself, Brie Larson, will star in a new, horror movie produced by J.J. Abrams, written by Brian Duffield and directed by J.T. Mollner. It’s called Fail-Safe and it’s based on a short story by Philip Fracassi about a young boy whose father spends a large amount of time making sure his mother doesn’t kill everyone, because she turns into a monster.
“With Fail-Safe, Brian Duffield has written an absolute powerhouse of a script. It’s a horror film that is as sweet and moving as it is terrifying,” Abrams said in a statement given to Deadline. “To have J.T. Mollner in the director’s chair — his Strange Darling blew me away — is a dream come true. Finally, having the limitlessly talented Brie Larson as our star sets up Fail-Safe to be that rare horror film that makes you laugh, feel, and care, before taking you on an absolutely wild ride.”
The film is currently being shopped on the market at the Cannes Film Festival, so expect some distributor to pick it up and help it get made, especially with that level of talent behind it.
Larson and Abrams kind of speak for themselves. One is the Oscar-winning darling who turned an incredible, low-key career starring in incredible movies like Short Term 12 and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World into a superheroic one, with her role as Captain Marvel and more. Abrams is the only person to ever direct a Star Trek and a Star Wars movie and has helped create some of the most beloved TV shows of a generation, like Lost, Alias and Felicity.
Those two together are awesome on their own but really it’s Mollner and Duffield that bring this together. Mollner has only directed two features but his most recent one, Strange Darling, was a genre festival darling, gaining praise and shock at each and every screening that took place. Duffield recently wrote and directed No One Will Save You, the stellar sci-fi starring Kaitlyn Dever, and previously directed the hilarious and over the top, Spontaneous. They are some of our best talents in the genre space and, to have them under the wing of J.J. Abrams, with Larson at the heart of this very intriguing movie, is awesome.
You can read “Fail-Safe” by Philip Fracassi, in full, at this link. It’s a short story so expect the movie to be slightly expanded but, you’ll get the idea. This could be awesome.
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