I Am Not Alone: Netflix acquires Misha Green, Jessica Chastain sci-fi horror project

Misha Green has had some bad luck recently. She was showrunner on the HBO series Lovecraft Country, which didn’t get the second season she had planned out. Then she was hired to write and make her feature directorial debut on a sequel to the 2018 Tomb Raider reboot, a project that fell apart when MGM lost the rights to the property and Amazon picked them up. But Green has also had some good luck recently. Last month, it was announced that she will be making her feature directorial debut on a thriller called Sunflower,  based on a script she first wrote 15 years ago. Now Deadline has broken the news that Green will also be writing and direct a sci-fi “terror tale” called I Am Not Alone, with Oscar-winner Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye) attached to star in the film.

Deadline reports that the rights to the project, which is based on a 22-page short story by Chris Hicks, were the subject of a bidding war between five different bidders. By the end of the 72 hour bidding war, Netflix emerged the winner, beating out runner-up Warner Bros. with a six-figure purchase of the rights and mid-seven-figure offer to Green. The deal also appealed to Green because she wanted I Am Not Alone to end up at a streaming service.

As for the story itself, this is the information that was provided: The short story begins with the prologue: ‘I began seeing the creatures about a week before Zoe’s visit.’ I don’t want to give too much of it away, but the story centers around a mother of a young daughter whose life unravels when she suffers unbearable migraines that cause her to hallucinate as she begins to see creatures. It is the template for a grounded sci-fi story about a mother forced to defend her family against a threat only she can see.  

I Am Not Alone is being produced by Green, Genre Films’ Simon Kinberg and Audrey Chon, Bread & Circuses Entertainment’s Craig Flores, Scott Glassgold, and Peter Katz, and Chastain, with her Freckle Pictures partner Kelly Carmichael.

Kinberg, who previously worked with Chastain on The Martian, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, and The 355, had this to say about the project: “I’m a massive fan of Misha’s work, and been friends with Craig for years, so when I got sent this story and heard they were involved, I absolutely flipped out. Misha’s vision for it is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. And getting to work with Jessica again makes it even dreamier.“

Flores, who is also producing Sunflower for Lionsgate, added: “Collaborating again with visionary writer-director Misha Green and her unique literary voice on this sci-fi horror franchise is an absolute dream. And combining two creative powerhouses like Misha and Simon Kinberg is more than any producer could ask for.“

Does I Am Not Alone sound interesting to you? Let us know by leaving a comment below. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how it’s going to turn out.