Michael Shannon, the best good luck charm a director can have, belongs to Jeff Nichols---Shannon stars in all three of Nichols' films: Shotgun Stories, Take Shelter, and Mud (currently in theaters).  Recently, Shannon revealed he and Nichols "are heating up our fourth collaboration to happen in the winter."  Per Variety, said project is a sci-fi chase movie set in the present day.  The Warner Bros. project is Nichols' first studio film.

The studio is keeping details under wraps, but Nichols described two scripts he is writing in January.  Midnight Special, which Nichols likens to a "1980s John Carpenter movie" (specifically Starman), sounds like a good fit.  More after the jump.

Here's how Nichols described Midnight Special:

"I won’t talk too much about it now, other than to say I kind of want to make a 1980s John Carpenter movie. If I had to choose one of those it would be Starman. ... Midnight Special is going to be a genre film put through whatever bizarre filter is me."

Starman centers on an alien (sci-fi) who drives from Wisconsin to Arizona with the government in pursuit (chase).  Even if this is not Midnight Special, I am excited to see what Nichols can do with a studio budget in the science fiction genre.

Nichols' other script, based on a documentary, is "austere, quiet, sad, and beautiful."  Shannon will next be seen as General Zod in another WB sci-fi movie, Man of Steel.