Paramount Lands Supernatural Thriller Spec From Jacob Chase; Picture Company To Produce

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount Pictures has acquired an untitled supernatural thriller spec script from writer-director Jacob Chase, who is up for air after wrapping his first feature Larry. Latter is an Amblin Partners thriller based on his short film. Chase will direct the new one for Paramount, and The Picture Company partners Andrew Rona & Alex Heineman will be the producers. They also produced the feature Larry.

The new project’s title is being kept under wraps, but the story revolves around a man with a classified line of work who must take his family on a perilous trip while protecting them from the horror he has in tow. It is an ambitious premise and a step up in scale for Chase, with the combination of a franchise-able lead with a rich mythology.

After Larry went into production within a year of its deal — the film expands a short about a terrifying monster who manifests through high-tech devices like smartphones and other screen devices — Chase sold the spec Infinite to Sony and is an exec producer on several other genre efforts including Amblin’s Whisper and Legendary’s They Hear It.

Paramount’s Ashley Brucks will oversee for the studio. The Picture Company has another horror/thriller in the works at Paramount, Meet Jimmy, a co-production with Platinum Dunes. The company is currently in production on Studiocanal’s Gunpowder Milkshake, and recently set horror short The Blue Door at Amblin.

Chase is repped by Paradigm for directing, manager Nicholas Bogner of Affirmative Entertainment and attorney Eric Feig.