Seven Minutes in Heaven

[GreenScar]

J.J. Abrams and 'Lost' director pucker up for '7 Minutes in Heaven'

J.J. Abrams and his Bad Robot shingle are developing a thriller based on the teenage makeout game of snogging in the closet.

Called “7 Minutes in Heaven,” the original idea comes from Jack Bender, who most recently directed the final episode of ABC’s “Lost.” A longtime Bad Robot cohort, Bender signed a feature deal with the company in early June, and the “Heaven” project is his to helm. “Heaven” is being developed internally, but it likely will be set up at Paramount, the studio home of Bad Robot.

While plot details are being suppressed, it is known to focus on two teens who go into a closet as part of the titular game and find all their friends dead when they come back out.

Bad Robot is looking for a writer to tackle the idea.

The Abrams- and Bryan Burk-led Bad Robot factory is running strong for Paramount, with numerous projects in development. While the company keeps most of them in stealth mode, some are known, including the recently set up “Boilerplate,” a graphic novel-picture book hybrid by Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett about the development of the first robot.

Not all of Bad Robot’s material is genre-oriented. The company next has “Morning Glory,” starring Harrison Ford and Rachel McAdams, coming out in November from Paramount. The shingle and studio also are working on a remake of “Little Darlings.”

With so many projects in the works, the big question becomes which will come to fruition first. Abrams’ next directing project is his collaboration with Steven Spielberg, “Super 8,” which he will follow up with a “Star Trek” sequel. He is also producing “Mission: Impossible 4,” which is slated for a December 2011 release.

Bender, repped by UTA, is currently negotiations to direct Paramount's new Jack Ryan film project. That project is not a Bad Robot production.