Busy on another story, I just got beaten to the punch by Variety on news that Fox acquired Leviathan, a film that Ruairi Robinson will direct, based on a short film we wrote about previously. But the story was a bit incomplete. Fox bought a spec script (not a pitch) by Fight Club scribe Jim Uhls, not a pitch as our sister publication reported. I’m told the studio paid mix six against seven figures for the script. That’s pretty good right there, but the driving force behind the deal (it’s like the third one in 10 days) was the proof-of-concept short film that attracted a viral following. Simon Kinberg will produce with Neill Blomkamp and Steve Asbell is the Fox executive. The project is best described as Moby Dick in Space. Paradigm brokered the script deal for Uhls.
Here’s the short, which we unveiled March 23:
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