David Robert Mitchell, the filmmaker behind Under the Silver Lake and It Follows, is jumping into the world of superheroes.
MGM has picked up Mitchell’s Heroes & Villains, a genre-blending and genre-bending project that he has written and will direct. Mitchell will also produce along with Chris Bender and Jake Weiner of Good Fear Content.
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Details are being kept hidden in a secret headquarters but it is described as a new take on superheroes.
Mitchell has been working on his take on the genre under the cover of a cowl for some time now; not only is the script written but he expects casting to begin shortly, sources say.
While new take on superheroes seem to popping up everywhere — Netflix just last week picked up Ball and Chain, about a married couple whose powers only work when they are together — but Mitchell is nothing if not original with a tendency to deconstruct genres.
His It Follows took virginal and sexual horror movie tropes and made it front and centre in a tale about a supernatural force that kills after sexual encounters. The movie also gave the horror world a shot in the arm and became a word of mouth hit when it was released in 2014.
Silver Lake was an ambitious undertaking that took on conspiracy, noir, and music elements, starred Andrew Garfield and debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018.
The pick up of Heroes & Villains is the latest in a series of strikes being made by MGM, which has been on a tear of acquiring new material since Michael De Luca was named film chair earlier this year. The high-profile pick up of Andy Weir manuscript Project Hail Mary and Lady Gaga’s Gucci are just a few examples of new projects in the works. And De Luca is well-versed in Mitchell’s creative ways, having been a producer on Silver Lake.
Good Fear has two movies primed for release: Dave Bautista action comedy My Spy, which will stream on Amazon, and Disney’s live-action take on its animated tale, Mulan. The latter is due to open July 24.
Mitchell is repped CAA, Good Fear, and attorney David Fox.
