Jeff Nichols and Paramount are clearly keen to keep working inside the parameters of the sci-fi genre, with the filmmaker developing a new project for the studio that he’s slated to write and direct, which comes soon after his A Quiet Place spinoff was announced to be coming to theaters on March 31, 2023. Details are virtually nonexistent at this stage other than it being a completely original script, which will shoot after he finishes up on the next installment in the rapidly-expanding universe built out from John Krasinski’s two intense and atmospheric horror movies.
Nichols might be best known for his emotionally charged character pieces that include the psychological thriller Take Shelter with Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain, the coming-of-age drama Mud that helped usher in the age of Matthew McConaughey’s McConaissance, and the heart-wrenching biographical romance Loving which starred Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga. Yet Nichols is hardly a stranger to the sci-fi either.
Nichols’ 2016 film Midnight Special has become something of a cult favorite among genre aficionados, tracing the story of a man trying to keep his child with special abilities out of the reach of religious zealots. At one stage, Nichols was also in talks to helm a remake of Alien Nation, and the last we heard from that particular project came earlier this year when he revealed that Disney had asked him to refit his feature film pitch into a ten-episode TV series instead, but there’s been no word since.
Nichols also has the Cuban Revolution movie Yankee Commandante in the works, based on a 2012 New Yorker story that outlined how two men rose to the rank of comandante during the revolution, one of whom was Che Guevara, with the other being a white guy from Ohio.
With there isn't a date for Nichols' other sci-fi film with Paramount, the fact that the studio wants to keep working with him once he's made his A Quiet Place spinoff boasts well for fans of Nichols.