After delivering two stylish and slick action-thrillers in Non-Stop and Run All Night, both with Liam Neeson, Jaume Collet-Serra may be venturing out to sea for his next project. The director is circling Sony Pictures’ In the Deep, a shark adventure-drama based on the red-hot spec script by Tony Jaswinski.
The spec became a hot commodity last fall, when Sony made a competitive offer and beat out three other studios to acquire it. Deadline says the pic is being viewed as a potential awards contender, like a tonal mix of 127 Hours and Jaws, with some of Gravity‘s human-against-the-odds philosophy sprinkled on top.
The story centers on a young woman, grieving the death of her mother, who is surfing alone on an isolated beach and becomes stranded 20 yards off shore, clinging to life on a buoy. Her attempts to get back to shore are complicated by the arrival of a massive great white shark on scene.
As that description would suggest, In the Deep is a highly emotional drama about life, love and survival, and Deadline reports that the studio is looking for a young actress in her twenties to anchor.
There’s no deal yet, but Collet-Serra has the offer, and he’s in early talks. The director is coming off strong reviews and solid box office numbers on Run All Night, which was his second movie in three years. He had been involved in Warner Bros.’ long-gestating Akira adaptation for some time, but last we heard, that project was stalled over script issues,  with new Daredevil showrunner Marco J. Ramirez (Sons of Anarchy) taking another swing at it. As such, Collet-Serra has wisely chosen to move onto other, more firmed-up projects.
In the Deep sounds like a very interesting and much more claustrophobic pic for Collet-Serra, who specializes in fast-paced, kinetic actioners, so it would be exciting to see him tackle the pic.
