Deadline is reporting that an original sci-fi thriller titled O2 produced by French horror filmmaker Alexandre Aja will star Noomi Rapace (Jack Ryan, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) in the lead role and will be directed by Franck Khalfoun (Amityville: The Awakening).
O2’s script penned by Christine LeBlanc was on the Black List, which compiles the best-unproduced scripts, back in 2016.
The thriller sounds like a science-fiction version of Ryan Reynolds’ 2010 film Buried.
The pic centers on a woman who wakes up in a cryogenic medical pod, alone, with no memory, and no way out. All she knows is that she has 90 minutes of oxygen left and must figure out how to save herself, while discovering who she really is, who put her there, and most importantly – why?
Here is the synopsis and trailer for Buried.
A civilian truck driver in Iraq, Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds) falls victim to a band of insurgents. An unknown length of time later, Paul awakes in a coffin, with little more than a lighter, a cell phone, and his ever-growing anxiety. Faced with a dwindling oxygen supply and a dying battery, Paul must fight panic, despair and delirium as he awaits a rescue that might not arrive in time.
Aja is best known for horror flicks such as High Tension, Crawl, Horns, Piranha 3D, and The Hills Have Eyes remake.
They’ll be seeking distribution partners at the European Film Market next week in Berlin, Germany.
It’s hard to talk about Noomi Rapace making a science-fiction thriller and not mention the lost potential of her becoming the leading force in the Alien franchise.
The Swedish actress at one time was expected to become the new face of the Alien franchise with Ridley Scott’s prequel Prometheus playing Dr. Elizabeth Shaw and the film ended with Shaw wanting to get answers from the Engineers.
For whatever reason, Shaw’s role in the sequel Alien: Covenant was downsized compared to other versions of the film and she was ultimately killed off-screen, a move that was a big let down to fans that liked her character and wanted to see her interact with the Engineers.
This creative decision gave the keys of the franchise to Michael Fassbender’s David and to a lesser extent Katherine Waterston’s Daniels.
I personally, enjoyed the dual roles played by Fassbender but was underwhelmed by the Daniels character along with the performance from Waterston. Audiences seemed to agree that the film wasn’t up to snuff as the box office results were dismal.
It remains to be seen if the new brass at 20th Century Studios will continue the third Alien prequel film (had once been referred to as Alien: Awakening) that President of Production Emma Watts (recently resigned from 20th Century Studios) and Ridley Scott/Scott Free were quietly developing.
We’ll continue to be hopeful that Disney/20th Century Studios will keep making Alien films with or without Ridley Scott’s involvement.
Once O2 lands a distributor we’ll likely have a better idea of when we can expect a release date.
SOURCE: DEADLINE
