James Wan, ‘John Wick’ Writer Derek Kolstad Team for Sci-Fi Time Travel Tale ‘Hunting Season’ (Exclusive)

James Wan, the filmmaker behind the Conjuring horror universe and Aquaman, and Transformers producer Don Murphy have teamed to adapt Hunting Season, a sci-fi time-travel tale by Frank M. Robinson.

Derek Kolstad, the writer behind the John Wick franchise, is set to write the script for the adaptation, which has Starlight and Star Plus on board to finance.

Wan is producing with his Atomic Monster partner Michael Clear, while Murphy is producing with partner Susan Montford via their Angry Films banner.

Robinson was one of the figures to come out of the mid-20th century sci-fi short story scene, penning techno-thrillers for various pulp publications. His thriller The Glass Inferno, written with Thomas Scortia, was one of two books that were combined to make the classic 1974 disaster film The Towering Inferno. He also was known for being the speechwriter for Harvey Milk, the gay San Francisco politician who was assassinated in 1978.

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Hunting Season will follow a law officer from the future who is declared an enemy of the state and sentenced to be executed by being sent to the past and stalked by a posse. The man has three days to acclimate to his new era and find a way to survive.

The project is being described as in the vein of 1984, Fahrenheit 451 and The Running Man. Robinson’s story first appeared in Astounding Science Fiction Magazine in 1951.

Peter Luo is executive producing, along with Atomic Monster’s Judson Scott. Cory Kaplan will supervise for Angry Films.

Atomic Monster is in postproduction on Malignant, a horror movie Wan also directed for Starlight Media and Midas Innovation that will be released by New Line. It is also in post on The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It for New Line, and There’s Someone Inside Your House for Netflix.

Murphy and Montford were producers on the 2011 Hugh Jackman-starrer Real Steel, which adapted a short story by Richard Matheson. Murphy’s credits also include Natural Born Killers.

Kolstad helped launched the Wick action franchise, having written the original script, then titled Scorn, on spec. He also worked on the sequels John Wick: Chapter 2 and John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. Kolstad also wrote the recent draft of the video game adaptation Just Cause for Constantin and Prime Universe Films and is a writer on Marvel’s upcoming TV series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

Kolstad is repped by APA, Circle of Confusion and Behr Abramson Levy.