The Batman director Matt Reeves is teaming up with TV powerhouse Shonda Rhimes to produce the sci-fi movie Recursion for Netflix, which is also developing a TV universe based on the property.
Blake Crouch wrote the upcoming book, which will be published by Crown next summer, on June 11, 2019. At once a relentless save-the-world sci-fi thriller, an epic romance, and an intricate police procedural, Recursion explores what happens when a brilliant scientist invents a powerful technology that allows people not just to reactivate their most visceral memories, but to reinvent them entirely. For some, it offers the chance to rewrite their entire lives. In the wrong hands, it will upend the world as we know it.
“Projects like this are why I came to Netflix,” said Rhimes, who is producing via her Shondaland banner alongside Betsy Beers. “The opportunity to explore a multi-genre universe in innovative ways is extremely exciting. Matt and Blake both have the tremendous ability to build compelling characters and imaginative landscapes and I am thrilled to work alongside them.”
“Blake’s mind-bending novel presents an incredible opportunity to explore its expansive narrative simultaneously through both film and television,” said Reeves, who will produce Recursion under his 6th & Idaho banner. “Netflix is uniquely suited for this ambitious undertaking and I can’t imagine a more exciting partner than the astonishingly talented Shonda Rhimes whose work I have admired for years.”
Crouch is the author of bestselling novel Dark Matter, which he also adapted for Sony. Crouch's Wayward Pines trilogy was adapted as a high-profile limited series on Fox, and his most recent project, the Michelle Dockery series Good Behavior -- which is based on his novellas -- just finished its second season at TNT.
“I have been a fan of Shonda’s and Matt’s work going back years,” said Crouch. “To have these titans of television and film working on something of mine is an incredible honor, and Netflix is the pitch-perfect home for people who want to adapt film and TV in the most innovative way possible.”
Adam Kassan and Rafi Crohn both oversee film and TV for 6th & Idaho, which recently partnered with Andy Serkis and Jonathan Cavendish’s The Imaginarium on an adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, which Serkis will direct. The company has several TV shows in the works, including The Passage which premieres on Fox in January, Away at Netflix with Jason Katims, Tales From the Loop at Amazon with Mark Romanek directing, and CBS just ordered a pilot for Surveillance with Patricia Riggen directing and Sophia Bush starring.