Per Collider, Jason Bateman is in talks to direct a contained thriller titled Shut In for New Line. First time writer Melanie Toast has penned the script, which has drawn comparisons to Panic Room.
The story follows a single mother who is held captive by her violent ex. Her two small children are left alone in a dangerous situation, and she must do everything to protect them and survive.
There’s at least ten producers on the project, but reportedly Cinestate’s Dallas Sonnier acquired Shut In as a spec script after discovering Toast via The Blood List – similar to The Black List of Hollywood’s best unproduced screenplays, but focusing on genre scripts – and while he initially planned to self-finance the project as an indie, a studio bidding war ignited that was eventually won by New Line.
Toast is already writing another script for the studio and producer James Wan, as well as one for Miramax and producer Eli Roth. Bateman has previously directed Bad Words and The Family Fang, and he’ll next star in HBO’s adaptation of Stephen King‘s The Outsider alongside Ben Mendelsohn and Cynthia Erivo.
He had been developing a new adaptation of Clue, but that conflicted with his Netflix series, Ozark. The brief premise of Shut In is promising but doesn’t reveal too much. Still, it’s cool that standalone thrillers – once a backbone of Hollywood – are still being developed. Hopefully Bateman and Toast can get some big stars attached.
#Peace.Love.ShutIn
