Mary Lambert, who directed the initial adaptation of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary, is getting behind the camera for Mira Grant’s mermaid thriller Rolling in the Deep for Branded Pictures Entertainment, Variety says.
The story revolves around an idealistic young filmmaker who sets out to the Mariana Trench with a small crew to film a faux documentary about mermaids. But the hoax soon turns real as sailors begin to disappear and the filmmaker realizes that they are under siege by actual mermaids. A fight to survive at any cost ensues.
Sean Hood, whose credits include Conan the Barbarian and Halloween: Resurrection, will adapt the novel, published in 2015.
“‘Rolling in the Deep’ is a film led by complicated badass female characters,” Lambert said.
“I’ve been waiting to make a film like this my entire career. Our mermaids are not cliché sugary cartoon princesses; they will take you down if you stand in their way.”
The Bye Bye Man director Stacy Title will executive produce and BPE director of development Thomas Pettinelli will co-produce. Filmmakers are aiming for production in 2019.
“The story has elements of The Shallows, 47 Meters Down,’ Dead Calm, and even Alien,” BPE executive Marc Marcum, who discovered the book, said.
“It is meant to be the definitive adaptation of the original mermaid myth that goes back to the dawn of civilization.”
Mira Grant is a pseudonym for Seanan McGuire, who has credits on nearly 40 novels, and numerous novellas and short stories since 2009. She is also currently writing comics for Marvel’s “Spider-Gwen” and “X-Men” series.
