David BenioffandD.B. Weiss, two creators who very quickly went from toast of the town to the walking embodiment of a Scooby-Doo “ruh roh”, have lined up their first project afterdeparting aStar Warstrilogy over a Netflix deal. The project, which is…not for Netflix, but for Warner Bros, is an untitled thriller inspired by the graphic novelLovecraftbyKeith Giffen. Benioff and Weiss will direct whilePhil Hay&Matt Manfredi(Aeon Flux,Ride Along) have been hired to write the script. [UPDATE: Further reports suggest Benioff and Weiss aren’tconfirmedto direct, but are still weighing their options.]Karyn Kusama, director ofThe InvitationandDestroyer, will serve as executive producer.
Lovecraftis a fictionalized take on the life of cosmic-horror authorH.P. Lovecraftin which the unspeakable monsters in his stories were real. Here’s something of a synopsis for the film version, via Deadline:
I’m told the movie asks a horrifying question: what if H.P. Lovecraft wasn’t making it up? What if the monsters he created are real? Also, the movie will be set in 1920 within the Cthulhu mythos.
It’s an interesting choice for Benioff and Weiss, who mostly removed all the strange Lovecraftian weirdness present inGeorge R.R. Martin’sA Song of Ice and Firebooks for their HBO adaptation. But “interesting” is the mildest way possible to describe the last few months for the filmmakers. We don’t really need to recapagainhow divisiveGame of Thrones' eighth and final season was. (But, like, woo boy.) After wrapping up the biggest TV show of all time to a resounding chorus of boos and thrown tomatoes, the duo announced a gigantic six-figure deal with Netflix. Barely more than a month later, Benioff and Weiss announced plans for their Star Wars trilogy were dead at Disney.
“There are only so many hours in the day, and we felt we could not do justice to bothStar Warsand our Netflix projects. So we are regretfully stepping away,” they said in a statement at the time.
Lucky, I guess, that Cthulhu laughs at the concept of time. For more on whatwouldhave gone down in Benioff and Weiss’Star Warstrilogy, here arethe details on their alleged “origins of the Jedi” plans.
