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Robert Rodriguez is still finishing up his sci-fi action thriller Alita: Battle Angel, which Fox conveniently delayed until December 21 to give him more time, but he’s also lining up more projects. The latest to be announced is another sci-fi thriller for Studio 9 called HYPNOTIC, which will be co-written by Max Borenstein.
Repped by UTA, Anonymous Content and Eric Feig, Borenstein has been carving a niche for himself by writing Legendary Pictures’ Godzilla, last year’s Kong: Skull Island and the upcoming Godzilla: King of Monsters. He will be rewriting Rodriguez’s own original script for Hypnotic, which the Austin-based filmmaker will both write and produce.
Not a lot is known about Hypnotic other than it’s a “grounded cop thriller with sci-fi elements” which Studio 8 hopes to turn into a franchise. Studio 8’s first two releases, the Matthew McConaughey drama White Boy Rick, directed by Yann Demange (’71), and the action-adventure Alpha from director Albert Hughes, which itself has been delayed a few times, will be released later this year.
There was recent news on one of Borenstein’s older scripts for What Is Life Worth, which is about to start production with Michael Keaton in talks to star for director David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada). That project is currently in Berlin at the European Film Market finding buyers.
Rodriguez has built a reputation for himself with his DIY filmmaking that has created a base for itself within the Austin community where the filmmaker has his own production and post-production facilities to make films that range from R-rated fare like Desperado, Sin City and their respective sequels to the Spy Kids franchise. Rodriguez has a number of other films to work on after finishing Alita, including a movie based on the popular Ugly Dolls toy line. He’s also threatened to make another Machete movie with Danny Trejo, even though both previous movies didn’t do particularly well.
Rodriguez is represented by WME.
The Hollywood Reporter initially reported on this story.
Edward Douglas | East Coast Editor
