As Hollywood seems to be slowly waking back to life this summer while the coronavirus pandemic rages on, new projects are being lined up even as finished ones continue to be delayed. Look no further than Edgar Wright, whose next movie, the cryptic time travel chiller, Last Night in Soho, has been pushed from September to April 2021. Even so, he’s worked out with Universal Pictures a new project that sounds incredibly intriguing: he’s adapting Adrian McKinty’s The Chain.
In a move that partners Wright for the first time with screenwriter Jane Goldman, the genre maestro who’s worked on the screenplays for Stardust, Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class, and Kingsman: The Secret Service, Universal announced Thursday (via Deadline) that they have secured the rights to The Chain.
The material seems like a departure for Wright, but then so has each of his past three movies, from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World to Baby Driver to Last Night in Soho. So seeing him stretch into what might be more of an action-thriller situation, and about the relationship of parents and children, should provide an interesting new angle on the filmmaker. And Goldman, who has often elevated the books and comics she’s adapted in the past, collaborating with Wright sounds like a dream match.
The film is also being produced by Working Title’s Erick Fellner and Tim Bevan, alongside Nira Park and Wright, and The Story Factory’s Shane Salerno.
