Netflix Picks Up ‘Seismic’ From ‘Mortal Kombat’s Greg Russo; Shawn Levy’s 21 Laps Producing

EXCLUSIVE: We hear that Netflix has preemptively picked up scribe Greg Russo’s spec script Seismic for six figures.

The thriller from the Mortal Kombat co-writer follows a single mother who fights to reunite with her missing son amid chaos after the Earth’s surface is decimated by a mysterious attack.

Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen & Dan Levine are producing for 21 Laps alongside Adam Kolbrenner for Lit Entertainment Group. Max Gains is overseeing for 21 Laps. and  Patrick White is overseeing for Lit.

New Line’s Mortal Kombat opened to a robust $23.3 million stateside in April 2021 as theaters were finding their footing as part of a day-and-date HBO Max theatrical strategy during the pandemic. The pic went on to make about $84M worldwide.

Russo wrote Robotech for Sony with James Wan directing and Heatseekers for Paramount with Timur Bekmambetov attached to direct and Michael Bay producing. Other recent work includes the Death Note sequel at Netflix, which Vertigo and Masi Oka are producing.

Russo previously penned It Takes a Thief for Universal with John Davis attached to produce, and Category 6 — the sequel to Into the Storm — for New Line with Todd Garner producing. He was hired on the new Resident Evil with Wan attached to produce, as well as Space Invaders at New Line. He was also recently brought on to adapt the legendary sci-fi game property System Shock as a live-action series for Binge.

Russo is repped by Verve, Lit Entertainment Group and Mckuin, Frankel.