Imperative Entertainment Lands David Grann New Yorker Article ‘The White Darkness’

Imperative Entertainment has optioned rights to The White Darkness, a survival drama based on an article that David Grann wrote in the latest issue of The New Yorker. Imperative’s Dan Friedkin and Bradley Thomas will produce.

It puts them back in business with Grann: Before it made the Ridley Scott-directed All the Money in the World, Imperative put itself on the map by paying $5 million for Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. The company got Eric Roth to write a script that secured Leonardo DiCaprio to star and Martin Scorsese to direct.

The White Darkness tells the harrowing story of British explorer Henry Worsley’s 2015 attempt to re-create his hero Ernest Shackleton’s infamous odyssey across Antarctica. The two adventurers, separated by a century but connected in their single-minded focus, battle obliterating conditions, penetrating isolation, and their own inner demons in this masterful portrayal of fortitude against all odds in the last remaining frontier on Earth – the South Pole.

“We couldn’t be more excited to team up with David again,” Friedkin and Thomas said in a statement. “Henry Worsley was an extraordinary man who personified grit, passion and perseverance. Over the last few months, we’ve had the tremendous pleasure of getting to know Henry’s family, and we are honored to bring his incredible life to the big screen in a way that will make them proud.”

CAA reps Grann along with The Robbins Office.