Sony Wins Bidding War for Brie Larson’s New Creature Feature SKELETONS and a Wild Plot Detail Has Been Revealed
Sony just locked down one of the more intriguing horror projects in development, and it stars Brie Larson in what sounds like a seriously twisted creature feature.
The film, now titled Skeletons and previously known as Fail-Safe, sparked a competitive bidding war before Sony walked away with the worldwide distribution rights.
According to reports, the studio outpaced Paramount, Neon, and Warner Bros. to snag it. That alone tells you there’s something special brewing here.
The latest update adds a new layer of mystery to the project. The Hollywood Reporter notes that the story will “focus on the relationship between a son and his mother, with the latter being mysteriously placed in a secure cage each night.”
Yeah. Let that sink in.
We already knew the supernatural horror would center on a parent and child dynamic, with something unsettling going on with the mother.
Now we know she’s locked inside a cage every single night. If Larson is playing the mother, that raises a lot of questions. What’s happening after dark? Is she transforming into something monstrous? Is this a werewolf situation? Or something stranger and more disturbing?
The film has been described as a creature feature, so it’s safe to assume things get gnarly. And if you’ve read the original short story by Philip Fracassi, you might already have an idea of where this is headed. Still, director JT Mollner isn’t the type to simply copy and paste from the source material.
Mollner co-wrote the screenplay, working from an initial draft by Brian Duffield, the writer of No One Will Save You. The project is also being produced by J.J. Abrams.
Mollner recently proved he’s willing to take big swings when adapting material. His take on The Long Walk by Stephen King surprised fans by reworking a major outcome from the novel. Speaking about that adaptation, he explained:
“The goal was to make these changes without pissing off constant readers, because we wanted to keep the DNA but also put something in that would surprise people who read the book, because why have the exact same experience twice?
“So hopefully, we thread that needle properly, but I'm really happy with the ending. And the reason I'm happy with it, and the choices we made, is because Stephen King said he was happy with it.”
If that philosophy carries over to Skeletons, we could be in for something that honors Fracassi’s original story while still delivering some nasty surprises.
There’s no release date yet, but this one just shot way up the list of upcoming horror movies to watch. Between Larson leading the charge, Abrams producing, and Mollner’s track record of flipping expectations, Skeletons sounds like it could be one of those horror films that sticks with you.