EXCLUSIVE: Joseph Gordon-Levitt is set to star in sci-fi thriller Sovereign, directed by British filmmaker Marc Munden. Arrival producers Shawn Levy, Dan Levine and Dan Cohen are producing through their 21 Laps Entertainment banner while Nick Meyer’s Sierra/Affinity is financing the project and will oversee international sales.
Jack Thorne, one of the UK’s most in-demand writers, is doing a measurable re-write of the script, which was first crafted by Geoff Tock and Gregory Weidman. The story sees Gordon-Levitt play a man who, in the wake of a fractured marriage, goes to find his wife and the entire crew of a space station who have gone missing. As he explores the ship, he discovers the truth about their disappearance and is forced to confront his own role in losing her.
Meyer and Marc Schaberg of Sierra/Affinity are exec producing along with Kelly McCormick and Gordon-Levitt.
Gordon-Levitt can currently be seen starring in Oliver Stone’s Snowden, in which he plays former CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden. He’s also in development on a variety of feature films including New Regency’s Fraggle Rock, Universal’s In Sight with producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, K Troop at Amazon Films and an untitled comedy musical at Universal with Channing Tatum.
Munden is hot property at the moment thanks to the UK success of Channel 4’s TV mini-series National Treasure, which aired last month. Robbie Coltrane starred in the four-part drama, which was written by Thorne, as a television comedian who was accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl several years earlier. Munden has also directed seven episodes of British TV series Utopia as well as Iraq War drama The Mark of Cain and BBC miniseries The Crimson Petal and the White.
Thorne recently signed on to adapt Philip Pullman’s epic trilogy of fantasy novels His Dark Materials for BBC One, New Line Cinema and Bad Wolf. As well as writing episodes of award-winning This Is England ’88 and This Is England ’90, he recently wrote the play Harry Potter and The Cursed Child for J.K. Rowling and Sky Atlantic’s crime series The Last Panthers. He’s also working on a period action adventure about two 19th century hot air balloonists The Aeronauts, which Deadline broke last week.
Gordon-Levitt is repped by WME and Jackoway Tyerman.
Munden is repped by Independent Talent Group in the UK and WME in the U.S.
Thorne is also repped by WME and Casarotto Ramsay & Associates in the UK.
