Coming off the success of his directorial debut The Cabin in the Woods, which he also co-wrote with Joss Whedon, filmmaker Drew Goddard lined up a couple of exciting and massive filmmaking opportunities that unfortunately fell through. First he signed on to create, direct, and serve as showrunner on Marvel’s first Netflix series Daredevil. But after penning the first two scripts and working to conceive the series, Goddard got an opportunity he couldn’t pass up: writing and directing a Sinister Six movie as part of Sony’s Spider-Man universe. So he left his showrunner role on Daredevil to develop and write Sinister Six, but unfortunately after The Amazing Spider-Man 2’s release, Sony opted to scrap its interconnected universe plans and team up on a new reboot with Marvel Studios as a partner, effectively cancelling Goddard's Sinister Six.

It hasn’t been all bad for Goddard—he was nominated for an Oscar for penning 2015’s blockbuster The Martian, he still serves as an executive producer on Daredevil, and he helmed the pilot of one of this year's best new shows The Good Place—but it was a bummer to see his directorial projects fall apart. Luckily, Goddard is now lining up a new project to direct, and it’s a 100% original.

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Image via Lionsgate

Per THR, Goddard just sold a secretive spec script titled Bad Times at the El Royale to 20th Century Fox which he will produce and direct. Details are being kept firmly under wraps, but it’s described as a contained thriller with either sci-fi or horror elements—which doesn’t sound dissimilar from Cabin in the Woods.

Indeed, Goddard kept this thing so close to the vest that when he was shopping the script to studios, it was only sent to top studio execs and they had to read it on an iPad that they’d then have to hand back to a courier, bypassing the normal reading process.

This is great news, not only that Goddard is getting back behind the camera, but that it’s an original project. We recently broke the news that Goddard is also working on the script for Deadpool 2, so the guy is certainly in demand. But Cabin in the Woods showed a confidence of vision as a filmmaker, and I can’t wait to see what surprises Bad Times at the El Royale has in store.

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Image via Lionsgate