With buzz building on his action thriller Baby Driver, Edgar Wright is setting his sights on his next potential project, the adaptation of Andrew Smith’s YA novel Grasshopper Jungle.
New Regency is in final negotiations to pick up the project, winning a rights war that included Netflix as a competitor, among several other companies.
Wright is on board as director with Matt Tolmach, the producer behind the upcoming comedy Rough Night and adventure movie Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, producing along with Wright’s producer partner Nira Park. Scott Rosenberg wrote the script.
Grasshopper Jungle mashed up genres as it tackled adolescent love and communication while also serving up apocalyptic action in the form of an unstoppable army of 6-foot-tall praying mantises.
Released in February 2014, the story followed a teen in Ealing, Iowa, dealing with sexual confusion as he and his friends accidentally unleash the end of the world.
The film project had been previously set up at Sony.
Wright has built a loyal of following of geeks and cinephiles with movies such as Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
The filmmaker is poised for mainstream breakthrough with Baby Driver, which has Ansel Elgort, Lily James, Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx and Kevin Spacey in its cast. The movie screened at SXSW, drawing enthusiastic responses, while footage at CinemaCon had exhibitors salivating. The reactions prompted Sony to move up the release of the pic from mid-August, considered a sleepier time on the summer calendar, to June 28, smack in the middle of the competitive moviegoing season. The move shows how the studio now believes Baby Driver has potential to be a hit with a much broader audience.
Wright is repped by CAA and Anonymous Content.
New Regency is keen on building relationships with hot young filmmakers, a factor in its decision to jump on Grasshopper Jungle. It is currently reteaming with 12 Years of Slave director Steve McQueen for his latest, Widows, and working with James Gray on the sci-fi thriller Ad Astra, which will star Brad Pitt.
