Warner Bros. has picked up Hammerspace, a sci-fi spec by relative newcomer Mike Van Waes.
Dan Lin is producing.
The story is set in motion when a terminally ill teenager, while searching for answers about his missing father, finds a mysterious key that unlocks a portal to an alternate animated dimension, releasing an unexpected new friend who helps him repair his broken family.
The film is described as being in the vein of Tron, A Monster Calls (the new J.A. Bayona movie about a boy looking for a monster to help him cope with his mom’s terminal illness) and Space Jam (but without the basketball).
Jonathan Eirich brought the project into the studio from Lin Pictures and will executive produce. Courtenay Valenti and Racheline Benveniste will oversee for Warner Bros.
Van Waes is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and was a reader for DreamWorks and Paramount while writing on the side. He caught a break when his script Grave Hearts was a finalist for the prestigious Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting — and this is his next one, his first studio spec sale. It’s all the more impressive since today’s movie business environment doesn’t encourage the sale of specs.
He is repped by CAA and Grandview.
