This morning Sony Pictures acquired the new hot spec REDDOOR (stylized as /reddoor) from writers Teddy Tenenbaum and Minsun Park. Producers Barry Josephson, Liz Bassin, and Jim Wedaa have come aboard the project as well. Wedaa also reps both writers.
The project is a horror thriller story that focuses on a journalist who discovers a new game app can kill people in real life once they enter the game. He then needs to race to save both he and his sister before they meet their demise.
It’s being compared to other projects like The Ring and Ready Player One, but seems to have the most in common with the 2006 horror film Stay Alive, which follows a group of friends who discover that a new video game has the ability to kill people in real life the exact same way they die in the game. It stars Jon Foster, Sophia Bush, and Frankie Muniz. Stay Alive, however, was both a critical and financial dud, and it’s likely not many people remember it very well.
Paradigm brokered the deal for the spec, following several other sales for the agency, including Keeper of the Diary to Fox Searchlight, Skyward to Fox, Unfit to Amazon, and Highway One to Amblin.
Prior to this, Park had mostly been involved on the effects side of projects, while Tenenbaum was a writer for the CBS series The Ghost Whisperer and wrote the original draft of Let’s Scare Jessica to Death, which is in development at Paramount.
They’re repped by Paradigm and Parallax Talent Management.
—TO SEE ALL THE PROJECT DETAILS CLICK HERE—
Anya Crittenton | Associate Editor
This news was first reported by Deadline.
