Matthew McConaughey & Anne Hathaway To Seek ‘Serenity’ In Steven Knight-Helmed Thriller

EXCLUSIVE: Here’s a hot project heading out to the European Film Market in Berlin next month. Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway are in negotiations to star in sexy noir Serenity, written and directed by Steven Knight. Greg Shapiro (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty) and Guy Heeley will produce.

IM Global will finance and produce and is launching the project at the EFM, making it the third time the company has teamed with Knight: The company previously produced, financed and sold Tom Hardy-starring one-man thriller Locke and also fully financed Redemption from the writer-director. CAA is repping domestic rights for Serenity.

We’re hearing the project is a mysterious tale of a fishing boat captain whose past is about to crash up against his life on a small island in the Caribbean, ensnaring him in a new reality that might not be all it seems. A number of U.S. studios are said to be circling the project already. Filming is expected to begin this summer.

This is a reteam for Oscar winners McConaughey and Hathaway after 2014’s Interstellar.

McConaughey currently has adventure drama Gold in release and is voicing the lead character in Illumination/Universal’s Sing. He’s up next as the Man in Black in Sony’s Stephen King adaptation The Dark Tower.

Hathaway’s in upcoming sci-fi actioner Colossal and stars in Warner Bros’ Ocean’s Eight which is out next year.

This will be Knight’s third directorial feature effort following 2013’s critically-acclaimed Locke and Jason Statham starrer Redemption. The in-demand writer-director is the brains behind BBC Two’s hit gangster drama Peaky Blinders and the Tom Hardy BBC/FX series Taboo. Season 4 of Peaky begins shooting in March.

Knight was nominated for a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for 2002’s Dirty Pretty Things. Further writing credits include Bradley Cooper-starrer Burnt; Robert Zemeckis’ WWII drama Allied with Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard; and The 100-Foot Journey with Helen Mirren. His upcoming projects include Susanna White’s Woman Walks Ahead and November Criminals. He’s also scripting World War Z 2.

Knight, McConaughey and Hathaway are repped by CAA.

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