EXCLUSIVE: Even though the Sundance offerings seem to be heating up, 2021 seems to have its first big sale on the horizon. Although an agreement has not yet been reached, we hear MGM is in exclusive negotiations for the supernatural thriller Drive with Jared Leto attached to the star and Darren Aronofsky on board to direct. Jason Blum will produce. Sources say that once the package hit the market earlier in the week, MGM was extremely aggressive and moved quickly to land the package. Details behind the financing were not available because the transaction was not officially closed.
Blum will produce through his Blumhouse Productions with Leto and Emma Ludbrook via their production company Paradox, as well as Carla Hacken through her Paper Pictures banner.
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The film is based on a short story by Koji Suzuki, who wrote The ring. Aronofsky and Luke Dawson will write the text together. Insiders close to the package say Leto identified the project and he and Ludbrook pursued the rights for ten years before bringing them to Blum and Aronofsky.
The story takes place in the dead calm of the open sea, where a fishing boat discovers an abandoned yacht with a strange cry of distress. A deckhand agrees to take control of it alone while being towed into port, but he soon finds out why the rest of his more experienced crew members call it a ‘Ghost Ship’.
No production start date has been set, as a script has yet to be written and scheduling needs to be worked out. Aronofsky’s target is on A24s The whale as his next project, which he will take with Brendan Fraser in March, while Leto has that of Ridley Scott Gucci followed by the Apple TV + series WeCrashed, who picked up the network this morning just for a series.
Leto het The Little things for Warner Bros. starring Denzel Washington and Rami Malek. This film hits theaters and on HBO Max on Friday. He is also developing a handful of projects, including a sequel to Throne: Heritage, which starred him and Garth Davis on board to direct. He can also be seen in the coming year Spider man spinoff Morbius.
Leto is withheld by WME and Aronofsky is withheld by CAA. The short story by Suzuki is retold by Kadokawa.