If you go way, way back to August, you might remember that Neil Gaiman apparently told MTV that David Slade, director of Hard Candy and unreleased-at-the-time 30 Days of Night, would be helming a film version of Gaiman’s BBC TV series Neverwhere. At the end of Devin’s write-up of the news, he made this observation: “When this is going to happen will be something else altogether, especially if Slade keeps getting lots of offers.”*
Slade did continue to receive offers, and it looks like he’s finally accepted one.
Slade will be taking over Sydney Kimmel Entertainment’s “topical thriller,” Unthinkable, from Tarsem Singh (The Cell), who had been attached to the project for over a year. The plot for this one sounds like Hard Candy meets 24; as Variety says, “Story involves investigators who push the limits of interrogation as they seek a suspect’s knowledge of an impending nuclear attack on the United States.” The budget for Unthinkable is rather low ($15 million), so I would expect it to be small in scope, which would probably work out better for Slade than 30 Days of Night did.
For those worried about the fate of Tarsem Singh (I’m sure there are one or two of you), fear not. I believe he still has an adaptation of [scariest video game ever] Condemned: Criminal Origins in the pipeline. Of course, his presence will still be felt on Unthinkable; he worked on a revision of the script, which was written by Edward Woodward’s son, Peter. Variety says Oren Moverman (I’m Not Ther) also had a hand in the script.
SKE plans to begin filming on Unthinkable this summer.
*Slade never officially signed on to Neverwhere. That isn’t to say he never will, but it’s possible he never will, you know, if he keeps getting lots of offers. And if nobody wants to fork over a budget.