The Hollywood Reporter today brings word that James Badge Dale is in talks to star. Nick Mathieu will direct. The script, originally written by George Nolfi from a treatment by Ian Fried, was rewritten by John Gatins.
It follows a special ops force that has trained in hunting the supernatural. They come up against ghosts that have taken over Manhattan.
When I sat in on a Legendary presentation last year, I saw a sneak peek at the film. Here’s what I reported:
Director Nic Mathieu joined Tull to talk briefly about Spectral which pits a special ops unit against an army of ghosts (“spectrals”) that are causing destruction in Manhattan (Legendary picked the film up on a pitch). The two showed off some concept art: Slide one featured the weaponry used to take down the ghost. They look like modified, futuristic machine guns. Another slide showed a destroyed city street and a ghost rising up in a blast of light, a few soldiers appear to be caught in some sort of shockwave. The film is described as a “modern war movie with an element of the supernatural” and the scope looks nuts. “We harness cutting edge, sci-fi weaponry to wage war on the supernatural,” said Mathieu. “We have to do this on a big canvas and bring out the big guns.” He added that he liked stories that “force us to look beyond ourselves” and feels Spectral is a movie that does that. The film is currently at the script stage and the hope is to maybe begin shooting in 2014.
Dale played supporting roles last year in The Lone Ranger, World War Z, Parkland and Iron Man 3. Among his upcoming credits is a part in Joe Carnahan’s microbudget actioner Stretch.
(Photo Credit: FayesVision / WENN.com)
