Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz are building The Fortress at Universal.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the German filmmakers best known for Goodnight Mommy are attached to write and direct the horror movie, marking their first Hollywood studio project.
Now entering final negotiations, it’s understood that Michael De Luca is in line to produce, with Lucy Kitada of De Luca Productions on board to executive produce. The Fortress is still very much acting as the passion project of Fiala and Franz, though, who are riding high after Goodnight Mommy became a shoo-in for Austria’s best foreign language film back in 2014.
Remaining in the same genre ballpark of unnerving thrillers, Fiala and Franz’s latest revolves around “a group of refugees hidden aboard a container ship who discover their passage to safety is not what it seems.” Beyond that, there’s not much to report regarding story, but now that The Fortress has found a home at Universal, expect fresh details to begin seeping out in the coming weeks and months.
Still incubating in pre-production, we’ll be keeping tabs on The Fortress as Universal, Fiala and Franz begin to round the horror pitch into a bona fide feature film.
