Here Be Monsters | Joachim Rønning

[BluBonnet]

Paramount Lands ‘Here Be Monsters;’ Next Film For ‘Tron: Ares’ Director Joachim Rønning

Paramount Pictures acquired at auction Here Be Monsters, a sea-set survival thriller that has franchise ambitions. It will be the next film directed by Joachim Rønning, whose new film Tron: Ares Disney releases theatrically on October 10.

Acquired in a competitive auction, Here Be Monsters becomes the latest big franchise-able IP to be acquired by the studio since Skydance took over. They asked to keep the content specifics under wraps, other than to call it an intense survival thriller at sea reminiscent of films like Alien and The Thing. The title offers a good idea of what’s in store for the boat passengers.

Scott Free’s Ridley Scott, Michael Pruss and Rebecca Feuer will produce the film alongside Rønning. The director wrote the screenplay with his brother Andreas Rønning and brought the project to Scott Free. The latest revisions of the script are from Noah Harpster and Micah Fitzerman-Blue (A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood).

While most studios try to stay away from the water for film locations, Rønning grew up in a small coastal town in Norway and has retained that level of comfort with water in the many films he has helmed. That includes his last film, the Daisy Ridley-starrer The Young Woman and the Sea, as well as Kon-Tiki, the journey of explorer Thor Heyerdahl who crossed the Pacific on a raft made of balsa wood, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. The latter two films Rønning directed with childhood friend Espen Sandberg after they made Hollywood films together after becoming preeminent commercial makers in Scandinavia under the name of Roenberg. After they split, Rønning directed Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.