It’s shaping up to be the last big bidding war of 2024. And it features Glen Powell.
The actor is attached to star and produce Homewreckers, an erotic thriller with a sci-fi twist. It’s a short story package that has several studios and companies hot and bothered.
Legendary, Lionsgate, New Regency, Sony and Warner Bros. are among the companies making offers and in the mix for the project, which was unveiled to the town early in the week.
The unpublished three-chapter story is by Neil M. Paik, who will also write the script. Details are being kept between the sheets, but sources say that the tones are Adrian Lyne, who made steamy thriller 9½ Weeks and Fatal Attraction, and Alex Garland, whose movies such as Ex Machina and Civil War tap into modern anxieties.
This year, hot new projects hitting the Hollywood market in the post-Thanksgiving period has been on the bare side, but Homewreckers is a welcome jolt.
It also serves as a nice capstone for Powell’s star-streaking year. Anyone But You, his comedy with Sydney Sweeney, opened in late December last year, and became a box office sensation, thrusting him into the top tiers of male actors. His romantic comedy thriller Hit Man, which he also co-wrote and produced, landed strong reviews and earned him a Golden Globe nomination earlier this week. And he starred in Twisters, Universal’s well-regarded update on the 1990s tornado flick. It proved popular with summer audiences, whipping up more than $370 million worldwide, including more than $267 million domestically. All of this, while he become the poster boy for the new class of Hollywood stars and a resurging theatrical experience.
A bidding involving the actor brings Powell’s year of being wanted full circle. Anyone But You, Glen? More like, Nobody But You.
Paik has a knack for turning his short stories into coveted projects; Reawakening, published by Six by Eight Press, was set up at Amazon as a series with Lena Waithe exec producing, also after a competitive situation. Another short story, Rainbowfish, was set up at Warners.
Powell is repped by CAA and Johnson Shapiro. Paik is repped by Untitled Entertainment.
