Colin Trevorrow To Direct New Thriller 'Atlantis' For Universal

Colin Trevorrow is traveling from Jurassic World to the depths of Atlantis. The Jurassic World: Dominion director is set to direct and produce the thriller Atlantis for Universal Pictures, based on a story about the mythical city by Trevorrow and Matt Charman.Variety reports that Colin Trevorrow is set to direct and produce the thriller Atlantis that is being developed by Universal Pictures with Trevorrow's Metronome Film Co. Trevorrow also co-wrote the story for Atlantis with Matt Charman, which delves into the mythical lost city. Dante Harper, the writer of the original spec script for Tom Cruise's Edge of Tomorrow, will pen the script for Atlantis.

Few details were shared about this new thriller, but according to Deadline, which first reported the news, Trevorrow's Atlantis will differ from "previous incarnations of the mythical city as an underwater kingdom," and instead set the film on "a lost continent in the Indian Ocean between Africa, India and Oceania. It is a multicultural civilization with its own advanced technology."

Atlantis is one of the most famous lost civilizations. First introduced in Plato's works Timaeus and Critias as a technologically advanced fictional island that is flooded and sunk by the gods due to the hubris of its leaders, the lost city of Atlantis and its likeness has appeared throughout literature since. However, there aren't as many films about it as you would guess. While a few films were made about the lost city in the '60s, the most famous film about Atlantis is Disney's animated 2001 film Atlantis: The Lost Empire, which likely remains the one that left the most lasting impact on people's minds today. Atlantis has appeared in films like Aquaman and Justice League as well.

Trevorrow is currently preparing to restart production on Jurassic World: Dominion following a three-month shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. Atlantis will likely be his next gig, though the filmmaker apparently first started the project in 2018, keeping it under wraps to give to his creative team, led by production designer Kevin Jenkins (Star Wars: Episode IX and Jurassic World: Dominion), time to research before going to script. From the sound of things, it appears that Atlantis is Trevorrow's next passion project after The Book of Henry, though that film famously went south and became one of the filmmaker's worst-reviewed movies. Hopefully that won't be the case with Atlantis.

Atlantis will be Metronome's second project at Universal following Space Opera, a musical with producer Marc Platt based on Catherynne Valente's book.