Brad Anderson, director of The Machinist, has a new sci-fi project in the works. Here’s what we currently know about the creature-filled World Breaker:
Brad Anderson, who’s something of a specialist when it comes to low-to-medium budget genre films, has a new sci-fi projects in the works. It’s called World Breaker, and the company financing it, The Exchange, is currently shopping the film to overseas territories at the American Film Market (AFM).
The news comes via Deadline, which reports that Anderson will direct from a screenplay by Joshua Rollins and Martin Brennan. Its synopsis is an intriguing one, in part because it leaves lots unsaid. Here’s how it goes:
Five years ago, a tear in the fabric of reality brought creatures to our world from an alternate dimension bent on our destruction. A father hides his daughter on an island to keep her safe while he prepares her for survival and the battles to come. But when the world is about to break, no place is safe.
Creatures appearing through a rift in reality leaves us thinking about Guillermo del Toro's mechs-versus-kaiju opus Pacific Rim, but there’s no way of telling from the synopsis whether we’re dealing with giant monsters here or regular-sized ones.
The production sounds as though it’s quite far along, though, with a cast in place but so far unannounced, and filming due to commence in Belfast once the small matter of those SAG-AFTRA strikes are settled.
Anderson’s career stretches back to the mid-1990s, with perhaps his most-discussed film being 2004’s The Machinist – a slow-boiling thriller marked out by Christian Bale’s gaunt, guilt-ridden performance as the titular factory worker.
Before and after, Anderson’s work has taken in horror (Vanishing On 7th Street, Stonehearst Asylum, Blood) and thrillers of various kinds (TransSiberian, The Call, Beirut, Fractured) and a smattering of telly, including several episodes of Fringe.
Not everything Anderson’s made has turned to gold, but there are some inventive moments even in his less successful films. TransSiberian, with its top-notch cast – Woody Harrelson, Emily Mortimer, Ben Kingsley and Kate Mara – is particularly worth checking out.
More on World Breakers as we get it.
