Universal Taps German Filmmaker for 'Grim Night'

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Dennis Gansel is in negotiations to direct supernatural horror project Grim Night for Universal Pictures.

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Universal has won a bidding war for Night, a spec written by Brandon Bestenheider and Allen Bey, last year. The spec came with a trailer (the newbie writers worked a post-production house and made it in their spare time) that hit horror sites and generated buzz.

The script's premise centers on how one night every year, strange creatures attack Earth and kill thousands, targeting different place with no one knowing why. The story centers on a family in small town America that gets attacked and has to defend themselves.

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Marc Platt is producing with Adrienne Biddle and Bryan Bertino of Unbroken Pictures.

Director of development Anikah McLaren will oversee the project for the studio.

Gansel, repped by Gersh, is a German filmmaker who directed and co-wrote We Are the Night (Wir sind die Nacht), a horror movie about a trio of female vampires. Earlier this year, his political thriller The Fourth State, toplined by Kraut star Moritz Bleitreu, hit screens in his Teutonic homeland.