'Midnight Special' Director Jeff Nichols Is Making An Original Sci-Fi Movie After His 'Quiet Place' Spin-Off
Jeff Nichols, the director of Take Shelter, Midnight Special, and more, is already on board to helm the next A Quiet Place movie for Paramount. And now the studio has gone ahead and locked him into another project, too. After Nichols directs the Quiet Place spin-off, he'll move on to an original sci-fi film. There are zero details about this new project, but the fact that Nichols has already landed another Paramount gig implies the studio is keen to work with him.
A New Jeff Nichols Sci-Fi Movie
Deadline is reporting that Paramount has tapped Jeff Nichols to write and direct a new, original sci-fi film. Unfortunately, this also comes with the frustrating caveat that we don't know what the movie is about. All we know is that "story details are being kept under wraps other than it being described as a new science fiction project."
But before Nichols makes this new sci-fi movie he'll be directing a spin-off set in the world of A Quiet Place. That's separate from A Quiet Place Part III, which is also probably happening at some point. We don't know much about Nichols' Quiet Place spin-off, either. Just that it's set in the same world, and will likely focus on characters beyond the Abbott family. The idea for the film came from franchise director John Krasinski, who will also produce.
Who is Jeff Nichols?
Jeff Nichols is probably not a household name, but he's a filmmaker worth paying attention to. Nichols burst onto the scene in 2007 with his feature directorial debut, Shotgun Stories. The film followed a "feud between two sets of half-brothers following the death of their father in rural Arkansas," and starred Michael Shannon. Shannon would go on to appear in all of Nichols' other films, which means there's a good chance we'll see him in the Quiet Place spin-off and/or this new sci-fi film.
Nichols' other work includes the disturbing thriller Take Shelter, about a man (Shannon) who has terrifying apocalyptic dreams; Mud, starring Matthew McConaughey as a fugitive in hiding who befriends a pair of teenagers; Midnight Special, about a boy with special powers being pursued by both the government and a religious cult; and more recently, Loving, based on the true story of Richard and Mildred Loving, who were criminally charged with interracial marriage in Virginia in the 1960s.
Nichols' Take Shelter and Midnight Special both have sci-fi and horror elements, so he's a good fit for both the Quiet Place spin-off and this mysterious new sci-fi film.