Last June, the news arrived that, far from sitting and licking his wounds after the critical and box office pummelling handed out to A New York Winter’s Tale, Akiva Goldsman was leaping back into the directorial fray with a low-budget horror thriller called **Stephanie. We now know that Frank Grillo will be starring in the film, though clearly not as the title character.
Stephanie, written by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski, finds a girl abandoned by her parents at their remote home. She survives on peanut butter and keeping herself sane by chatting to her toy turtle – sane might be a relative word here – a dark supernatural force surrounds her. When her parents return to find her, they discover that the dangerous power has grown: and their daughter is at the centre.
Grillo and Blumhouse Productions, which is backing this one, already have a good working relationship after last year’s The Purge: Anarchy. And Universal, which has had plenty of luck with Blumhouse films, has picked up the rights. It should start shooting soon, particularly as Grillo will be needed to work on Captain America: Civil War, where he’ll be appearing as the villain known as Crossbones. He’s currently at work on sci-fi sequel Beyond Skyline and has shot Big Sky, A Conspiracy On Jekyll Island and another horror thriller, Demonic.