EXCLUSIVE: Hot off its mammoth success with the Oscar-winning “woke” genre thriller Get Out, Blumhouse has won an auction for Invasion. The spec script by John Swetnam and Harris Wilkinson wraps a ticking clock sci-fi premise with themes that include immigration. Essentially, the thriller revolves around a home…

EXCLUSIVE: Amblin Partners may have found the next major female directing voice, and she was right under everyone’s noses the whole time. Courtney Hoffman has been set to direct Ruthless, the John Swetnam-scripted action film that sold in a competitive spec auction for good money back in February. Brad Peyton came…

EXCLUSIVE: Amblin Partners just won an auction for Ruthless, a female-driven action spec script by John Swetnam that had producers and studios going all week. San Andreas helmer Brad Peyton is attached to direct, and Weimaraner Republic Pictures partners and The Shallows producers Matti Leshem and Lynn Harris are…

MTV has put in development KRawl, a drama from John Swetnam, producer Henrik Bastin and Melissa Aouate of Fabrik Entertainment. kRawl is the story of a young woman whose social media account begins showing her posts a day in advance. Now armed with the power to see the future, she finds herself embroiled in a…

EXCLUSIVE: News of splashy deals for finished films, sizzle reels and scripts with talent attachments made on the Croisette will continue to be unveiled for the next few weeks. Here’s one that got done just before the fest market closed. Maple Leaf Films’ Tove Christensen and Michael Wexler agreed to finance and…

EXCLUSIVE: Executive producer John Legend and writer-director John Swetnam (Step Up All In and Into the Storm ) have teamed with DanceOn, the multi-channel YouTube network co-founded by Madonna, on a unique casting call for the upcoming dance pic Breaking Through. Dancers will be selected from submissions to the…

EXCLUSIVE: Writer-director John Swetnam (Step Up: All In, Into the Storm) and exec producer John Legend have cast the twinkle-toed lineup for their internet-generation dance pic, Breaking Through. Dancer, choreographer, and actress Sophia Aguiar was discovered via YouTube after performing with Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez…

EXCLUSIVE: R&B singer John Legend and Step Up: All In scribe John Swetnam are teaming on coming-of-age dance drama Breaking Through, which has locked independent financing and is gearing up for a summer shoot. It’ll be the first feature of its kind to combine two subgenres — dance movies and found footage — in a plot…

EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate/Summit has won an auction for Spinback, a John Swetnam spec script action thriller set in the world of electronic dance music. Scott Speer (Step Up Revolution) is attached to direct, with Todd Garner producing through his Broken Road Productions banner, with Sean Robins and Jeremy Stein. Garner…

EXCLUSIVE: Get ready for another installment of Step Up, the under the radar franchise that continues to do strong business, particularly overseas. Summit Entertainment has just set John Swetnam to write the script for a film that has Scott Speer returning to direct and Offspring partners Jennifer Gibgot and Adam…