Skydance Sets Laeta Kalogridis And Patrick Lussier To Script Sci-Fi Adventure

EXCLUSIVE: David Ellison’s Skydance Productions, which has been in the middle of the recent Paramount hits Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol and True Grit, is making good on its promise to develop its own original material. Ellison has set Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier to script an original science fiction adventure based on an idea hatched at Skydance.

They are keeping the idea close to the vest. Kalogridis’ scripting credits include Shutter Island and Alexander, and she was exec producer of Avatar. With her Mythology Entertainment partners Bradley Fischer and James Vanderbilt, she’s producing White House Down, the Vanderbilt-scripted drama that Roland Emmerich will direct for Sony Pictures. As for Lussier, his script credits include Wes Craven’s Dracula trilogies, My Bloody Valentine and Drive Angry. He is separately co-writing an untitled thriller for producer Jason Blum that Lussier will direct.

Skydance is co-producing and co-financing the upcoming Paramount films G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation, the Barbra Streisand-Seth Rogen comedy The Guilt Trip, the Tom Cruise-starrer One Shot, World War Z with Brad Pitt, the Star Trek sequel, and the Jack Ryan franchise reboot that Kenneth Branagh will direct with Chris Pine. There is also Without Remorse, the Jack Ryan spinoff novel that Tom Clancy devoted to ruthless mercenary John Clark (Williem Dafoe played him in Clear And Present Danger), which The Shield‘s Shawn Ryan is scripting.