Chris Hemsworth’s first collaboration with Netflix ended up working out pretty well, with Extraction becoming the streaming service’s most-watched original movie ever, drawing in 90 million viewers in the first month it was available. Of course, it helped that the film dropped when the Coronavirus restrictions were at their tightest and the majority of subscribers were stuck at home with nothing better to do, but Sam Hargrave’s feature debut would still go down as one of the best action flicks to be found even in a regular year.
The 37 year-old will next be seen reprising his career-defining role in Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder, but after that, he’ll be returning to Netflix having signed on to a new sci-fi to be directed by Tron: Legacy‘s Joseph Kosinski. Spiderhead is based on a short story set in the future, where convicted felons can volunteer as test subjects in exchange for a shortened sentence, and the plot follows two prisoners forced to wrestle with their own pasts on a drug-induced trip overseen by the head of the treatment program.
Miles Teller is also onboard for what marks his third consecutive collaboration with Kosinski following Only the Brave and the upcoming Top Gun: Maverick, while Birds of Prey‘s Jurnee Smollett will play the female lead. The synopsis certainly presents some interesting narrative possibilities, as long as Kosinski can finally make a movie with a strong enough narrative to match his undoubted talents as a visual filmmaker.
Deadpool, Zombieland and 6 Underground scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick are on scripting duties, and while they’re hardly renowned for in-depth character studies, there’s certainly enough talent assembled here to ensure that Spiderhead is a project definitely worth keeping tabs on as it moves through development.
