Sony Pictures has bought the rights to sci-fiction drama “Passengers,” written by “Doctor Strange” scribe Jon Spaihts.
Neal Moritz and Ori Marmur will produce through Moritz’s Original Film banner along Michael Maher for Start Media and Stephen Hamel of Company Films.
Earlier this year, Focus Features had been in talks to acquire U.S. rights to “Passengers” with Keanu Reeves starring. “Passengers” went back on the market after the Weinstein Co. ditched the project after acquiring the rights with Reese Witherspoon attached; the actress later departed and was replaced by Rachel McAdams, who has also left the project.
Spaihts’ script is set on a spacecraft in the future with thousands of passengers making an interstellar voyage to a new planet. One passenger awakens from cryogenic sleep 90 years before anyone else, then awakens a female passenger.
Spaihts’ credits include “Prometheus.” Disney-Marvel’s “Doctor Strange” will star Benedict Cumberbatch and be released in November, 2016.
Source: http://variety.com/
