EXCLUSIVE: New Regency has acquired “Carrier,” a short story by Aaron Benjamin, developed from an original idea by Benjamin and Jack McCain, the naval pilot and son of former U.S. Senator John McCain.
Carrier is an action-thriller that takes place during the naval funeral of a high-profile U.S. Senator, as the aircraft carrier where the funeral has taken place is attacked, with the President being taken hostage. Forced into action, the Senator’s son teams with the President’s daughter to uncover who is behind the attack and take back the ship.
The concept was conceived by Mortal Media, the production company of All-Pro NFL center Ryan Kalil and former NBA All-Star Blake Griffin, and shared with Benjamin, who then brought in McCain to further develop it. Griffin, Kalil, and Noah Weinstein will produce, with McCain acting as an advisor on the project.
Benjamin has most recently been hired to pen true-crime thriller The Panama Unit, as well as shark-thriller sequel Black Demon 2 for Mucho Mas Media. His horror short story “Millionaire” has Morris Chestnut attached to star and produce, and he previously sold his action-thriller spec The Zone to Millennium Media with Wally Pfister directing. Benjamin’s Super Bowl-set Black List script The Nest is set up at Thunder Road with Gerard Butler set to star. He is repped by Verve — which has spearheaded the rise of the short story as a go-to acquisition target among studios — as well as Jon Hersh at Night Drive Management, and attorney Paul Miloknay.
Best known for the Apple TV+ sci-fi dramedy Hello Tomorrow! starring Billy Crudup and their White Men Can’t Jump reboot for 20th/Hulu starring Jack Harlow, Mortal Media is repped by WME and Ziffren Brittenham.
Last year, we reported exclusively on a slew of deals at New Regency, as the company acquired Stephen Herman’s thriller short story “They”re Still Here,” the erotic thriller spec Fixation from Erika Vazquez and Siena Butterfield, and a thriller pitch from How to Blow Up a Pipeline‘s Daniel Goldhaber. Recently, they also secured a straight-to-series order at Netflix for Black Hole, an adaptation of the graphic novels from Charles Burns. They developed the project with I Saw the TV Glow‘s Jane Schoenbrun, who will direct.
On February 20th, New Regency will see 20th Century Studios release their horror thriller Psycho Killer penned by Se7en‘s Andrew Kevin Walker. Their feature slate also includes Blood Meridian, an adaptation of the novel from Pulitzer Prize-winner Cormac McCarthy, to be directed by John Hillcoat from a script by Oscar winner John Logan. Additionally, they have docs on Elon Musk and Jimi Jendrix, an adaptation of the Ubisoft game Watch Dogs starring Tom Blyth and Sophie Wilde, and Eight Perfect Murders, to be directed by Harry Bradbeer.
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