Norwegian director Andre Ovredal has boarded sci-fi thriller “Emergence,” Variety has learned exclusively.
XYZ Films is handling international sales and plans to meet with buyers at the Toronto Film Festival. StarStream is financing.
Ovredal directed 2010’s fantasy “Troll Hunter,” which generated positive buzz at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival with its blend of horror and humor, and the upcoming Emile Hirsch supernatural thriller “The Autopsy of Jane Doe.”
Producers of “Emergence” are Alex Francis (“Moon”) of CastleView Films, Chris Brown (“The Proposition”) of Pictures in Paradise and Jim Duggan of Screen Scene. XYZ Films and StarStream are executive producing.
The film, written by Rowan O’Neill and Jonathan auf der Heide with the story by Chris Kunzmann and O’Neill, is an Australian-Irish co-production with a start date soon to be announced. The story follows a mining crew working on a distant moon that faces a frantic struggle for survival when a rogue terraforming organism is accidentally released on the surface, spreading like wildfire as it consumes anything in its path.
XYZ and StarStream previously collaborated on “Life After Beth,” starring Dane DeHaan and Aubrey Plaza, and Kevin Smith’s “Yoga Hosers,” starring Johnny Depp, Lily-Rose Depp, and Harley Quinn Smith.
