Mahershala Ali was once known to me as "the guy from PREDATORS", but his career has been on an upward trajectory ever since then, and now his acting has earned him two Academy Awards in the last three years.
For his next project, Ali is teaming with some promising collaborators. He has signed on to star in a mysterious sci-fi project called SOVEREIGN… a project which the producers are revealing absolutely nothing about at this time, so the names involved are the only thing we have to go on.
Entertainment One is financing SOVEREIGN and producing the film alongside Shawn Levy, Dan Levine, and Dan Cohen of 21 Laps Entertainment, the producers behind the Netflix series Stranger Things. eOne is also financing the film.
Marc Munden will be directing, working from a screenplay written by A QUIET PLACE writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. John Krasinski may have performed a substantial rewrite on their script for A QUIET PLACE, but Beck and Woods have apparently done the same thing here – the initial draft of SOVEREIGN was written by Greg Weidman and Geoff Tock. Jack Thorne also did some revisions.
Nick Meyer, Entertainment One's President of Film, had this to say about the project:
We have long loved this project and have been patiently waiting until we found the right leading actor, which we no doubt have found in the incredibly talented Mahershala Ali. The cast is clearly shaping up well and is backed by a creative team with a proven track record and the ability to tell a story that will resonate with audiences around the world."
21 Laps Entertainment released the following statement:
Much like our film ARRIVAL, this project is for us a dream pairing of an inspired screenplay with a truly visionary director. Marc Munden has been an exceptional collaborator in shaping this singular story into one that jumps off the page and with the phenomenally talented Mahershala Ali at the heart of this film, we feel we now have the dream creative partners to tell a story that audiences won't forget."
Sounds good… now we just need to figure out what it's about.
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