Screenwriter Peter Craig, who co-wrote the upcoming Gladiator II, and producer Bryan Unkeless, known for such fare as I, Tonya and Project Power, have teamed up for launch film and television production banner Night Owl.
It’s no small flex to launch a shingle in the current Hollywood climate, but the two players have extremely enviable track records and, more importantly, come with several projects already zipping along the development tracks.
There’s the adaptation of Shelby Van Pelt’s wildly popular novel Remarkably Bright Creatures, which is set up at Netflix with Where the Crawdads Sing filmmaker Olivia Newman attached to direct and Sally Field attached to star. (Fun fact: Craig is Field’s son.)
There’s Tropical Underworld, a crime drama series set in Hawaii and based on a Bloomberg article written by Chris Pomorski. The project sold in a competitive bidding war to Fifth Season, which beat out such companies as A24, FX, Apple and MRC. Craig will write while Night Owl produces.
MRC may have lost Tropical Underworld, but it made sure it didn’t lose Head Count, an original spec script pilot by Craig that Night Owl will produce. That acquisition quietly led to MRC signing a first-look deal in TV with Night Owl. Head Count is intended to be a darkly comedic crime series focused on a wedding planner who works on the big event days for some of the world’s most ruthless people.
The projects in development showcase the ambition, productivity and the range Night Owl hopes to scale.
“We fantasized about starting a company that not only specialized in character-based action, but also protected writers and filmmakers and gave them the space to take chances and try new things,” said Craig in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.
Concurred Unkeless, adding “We plan on making high-octane action-thrillers and genre fare that feel singular in their approach in a way that will surprise and delight audiences. We want to join up with other artists we believe in telling stories we love, and then we will fight like hell to get those stories made. And we plan on having a fun time doing it!”
The two men have been friends for a decade and first met during the making of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 and Part 2. Craig was one of the writers on the hit movies Unkeless, who made his name by identifying the original Suzanne Collins book and spearheading development at production company Color Force, was a co-producer.
“In the last couple years, we found ourselves collaborating on more and more, and finally we saw the chance to go for it,” noted Craig, who is one of Hollywood’s top tier scribes and whose feature credits include the Ben Affleck crime thriller The Town, Matt Reeve’s The Batman, and Top Gun: Maverick, which earned him an Oscar nomination for best adapted screenplay.
Enthused Unkeless about his partner, “He’s a rock-solid human being, an artist who supports and protects other artists and their vision, and the perfect guy to be in the foxhole with to build a company.”
Craig is currently in post-production on his first television project, crime drama Sinking Spring, which he created and showran for Apple with Ridley Scott directing the pilot.
Unkeless previously ran Clubhouse Pictures, a prolific banner that made the Oscar-winning drama I, Tonya, starring Margot Robbie, as well as a range of genre movies. Among the titles were revenge thriller Kate, starring Mary-Elizabeth Winstead and Woody Harrelson, action fantasy Bright, starring Will Smith, superpower thriller Project Power, starring Jamie Foxx, and DC movie Birds of Prey, starring Robbie.
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