EXCLUSIVE: After coming together at warp speed over the past month, Deadline is hearing the Imagine Entertainment package After The Hunt from screenwriter Nora Garrett has landed at Amazon MGM Studios with Julia Roberts attached to star and Luca Guadagnino on board to direct. Garrett penned the script and Brian Grazer and Allan Mandelbaum will produce for Imagine Entertainment with Guadagnino producing through his Frenesy banner. Garrett will also exec produce along with Imagine’s Karen Lunder.
The film is an intense dramatic thriller about a college professor who finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads when a star pupil levels an accusation against one of her colleagues, and a dark secret from her own past threatens to come to light. Allan Mandelbaum brought the script into Imagine and worked with CAA to get it to top talent like Guadagnino and Roberts.
Since landing at Imagine Entertainment, which has been developing it for some time, the spec has been one of the more talked about scripts in recent memory with several agents telling Deadline, ” It’s one of the better scripts I’ve read since the writers strike ended” leading to a number of top tier directors trying to get a meeting with Imagine co-founder Brian Grazer to get the job. Following a recent meeting before the Oscars, Guadagnino locked up the directing job after impressing Grazer with his take.
Next up was locking in the talent and while there are a number great roles in the script, the older professor role had every A-list actress lining up with Julia Roberts, fresh off another massive hit with Leave The World Behind, at the top of the list. Once Roberts gave her commitment, the package became red hot with several suitors chasing but given the relationship Amazon MGM Studios has with Guadagnino, whose film Challengers is bowing next month for the studio, Amazon MGM made an aggressive bid that closed over the weekend.
The package is another example of how studios have been higher on specs and big packages since the dual strikes ended rather then some of its development and have shelling out big bucks to land these hot properties. One example is Amazon moving fast to land a new thriller from Bruna Papandrea that has Kim Kardashian attached to star.
For Garrett, this is a massive deal for a first time screenwriter landing so much talent in a writers first major sale but as many around town have been saying, great scripts usually lead to attracting top talent.
Roberts is coming off one of her biggest hits in recent years with the Netflix thriller Leave The World Behind smashing records for the streamer over the holiday season. The film was directed by Sam Esmail and also starred Mahershala Ali and Ethan Hawke.
Guadagnino continues to stay as busy as any director in town as his upcoming MGM Amazon Studios pic Challengers bows at the end of April. Buzz has been brewing on this one even after having to move to the spring because of the dual strikes and that anticipation has been built off the buzzed about performances of its leads Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist. He also has his adaptation of Queer starring Daniel Craig bowing later this year.
All parties are represented by CAA; Garrett is also represented by Fourth Wall Management and Yorn Levine; Guadagnino by Range and Goodman Genow and Roberts by Hirsch Wallenstein.
