‘The Gorge’ By Scott Derrickson.

After “The Black Phone” became a critical and commercial hit, Skydance announced that Scott Derrickson is set to direct ‘The Gorge’. Described as a genre-bending, high-action love story. Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy are set to star as leads. The script was written by Zach Dean (The Tomorrow War). Derrickson’s company, Crooked Highway will join Skydance’s David Ellison (Mission Impossible franchise) as producers. Miles Teller will executive produce. Apple Original Films boarded the pic in October 2022 to distribute.

In August 2022, Miles Teller joined the project coming off of the mega successful ‘Top Gun: Maverick’. In October, Anya Taylor-Joy (Furiosa) joined the cast. Later in March 2023, Sigourney Weaver (Alien) was added to the cast.

Synopsis: Two top marksmen (Teller and Taylor-Joy) must guard the west and east side of a gigantic gorge deep in a European forest for an entire year and are in charge of assuring nothing comes out, no questions asked. After a whirlwind courtship develops between the two during that period and after one of them finds themselves plunged into the depths below (and the other one soon following to rescue them) they begin to uncover secrets of the project and must fight for survival to make it out.

In December 2020, Zach Dean’s spec-script ‘The Gorge’ was revealed to be on that year’s “Black List” of the most-liked unproduced screenplays in Hollywood. Dean sold the script to Skydance on spec in a competitive bidding war and Skydance had been developing the film internally.

The Project gained some serious momentum in the summer of 2020, when Teller began eyeing it as his next film following the global success of his summer tentpole ‘Top Gun: Maverick’.

While Teller was deciding, Derrickson was weighing his own options following “The Black Phone’s” success bringing in $150 million at the global box office on a $25 million budget. Derrickson had been developing a number of things including The Gorge; Skydance knew it needed to get a star attached to make sure Derrickson committed to it as his next film. They made sure to get the script in front of Teller, and following meetings with producers and Derrickson, he was on board. Scott was quick to name it as his next directing job and the project was fast-tracked by Skydance.

Given Apple and Skydance’s first-look partnership, the studio looked to be in pole position to land the film, and once Taylor-Joy signed on, Apple was quick to make it official.

Scott Derrickson’s past credits include the first “Doctor Strange”, he was set to direct “Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness” but exited the project due to “creative differences”. he also directed the horror films “Sinister” and “The Exorcism of Emily Rose”. Derrickson also has the untitled sequel to “The Black Phone” in the works at Blumhouse.

In March 2024, it was also announced that Derrickson is set to helm a remake of Charles Laughton’s 1955 goth-horror masterpiece - “The Night of the Hunter”.it was based on David Grubbs novel, It’s as perfect as films go. This is another dubious attempt at remaking classic films. Derrickson’s writing partner, C. Robert Cargill who co-wrote ‘Doctor Strange’, ‘Black Phone’ and ‘Sinister’ is penning the script, Cargill explained that he believes the film deserved to be remade with a darker tone to the original. Why would you mess with greatness in the first place?

Filming on ‘The Gorge’ began in March 2023 in London, with production also occurring at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden, and in Wales. Post production was completed in June 2024.

In May 2024, Anya Taylor-Joy spoke to Collider about the film. when asked about what drew her to the project, Taylor-Joy cited one of her closest pals as one of her top reasons behind her interest in the film. “Oh I was really excited to work with Miles [Teller]. We’re all good friends, but we’ve been waiting to work together for a really long time”. She also added that she was excited about the movie being something that people had never seen before. “I think I was intrigued by the fact that that it was semi genre-less in the sense that it was both a love story and an action movie, so I was excited about that”.

Dan Laustsen, who worked as a DP on the first three John Wick films, has been chosen as the cinematographer for the film. He’s also working on Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein”.

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are scoring the film.

The runtime is reported to be 127 minutes. The film had a test screening in October 2023, and it received mixed reactions. one viewer praised the film’s practical sets and Reznor/Ross score, but thought that the movie was generic and that Derrickson is better at working with smaller budgets and creative leeway.

The film will be out as a Apple TV+ release in sometime in 2024.