Dakota Fanning (The Equalizer 3) has added to an already stacked dance card, closing a deal to lead the buzzy supernatural thriller The Watchers, which will mark the feature debut of writer-director Ishana Night Shyamalan.

The film set up at New Line Cinema following a multi-studio bidding war, which is based on the 2021 gothic horror novel by A.M. Shine, tells the story of Mina (Fanning), a 28-year-old artist who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers that are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.

M. Night Shyamalan and Ashwin Rajan will produce through Blinding Edge Pictures, alongside Nimitt Mankad for Inimitable Pictures, with Jo Homewood and Stephen Dembitzer exec producing. The film is expected to enter production this summer and will debut in theaters on June 7, 2024.

Fanning was at CinemaCon earlier this week to tout Sony’s forthcoming vigilante actioner The Equalizer 3, which reunites her on screen with Denzel Washington for the first time since Tony Scott’s Man on Fire all the way back in 2004. The Critics’ Choice Award winner and SAG Award nominee also recently landed a role alongside Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber and Eve Hewson in Netflix’s limited series The Perfect Couple, based on the Elin Hilderbrand bestseller, which Susanne Bier will direct. And she’ll next year star with Andrew Scott in Steve Zaillian’s own Netflix limited series, Ripley, adapted from Patricia Highsmith’s bestselling quintet of Tom Ripley novels.

Fanning previously collaborated with Bier on Showtime’s The First Lady, starring there opposite Michelle Pfeiffer, and also starred opposite Daniel Brühl and Luke Evans on TNT’s The Alienist, which premiered as cable’s #1 new drama before going on to claim an Emmy, two Golden Globe noms and other accolades. Recent film credits for the actress include Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Ocean’s Eight and Ewan McGregor’s directorial debut American Pastoral.

Fanning is represented by UTA, Echo Lake Entertainment and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller. [Source]

Dakota Fanning promotes the upcoming film “The Equalizer 3” at the Sony Pictures Entertainment presentation during CinemaCon, the official convention of the National Association of Theatre Owners, at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace on April 24, 2023 in Las Vegas. You can go to the gallery to enjoy the photos!

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Two-time Emmy winner Nicole Kidman (The Undoing), nine-time Emmy nom Liev Schreiber (Ray Donovan), The White Lotus standout Meghann Fahy, two-time Critics Choice Award winner Dakota Fanning (The Alienist), and the Flora and Son duo of Eve Hewson and Jack Reynor are in various stages of negotiations to star in Netflix’s The Perfect Couple, sources tell Deadline.

The limited series, to be directed and exec produced by Emmy winner Susanne Bier (The Undoing), comes from Gail Berman’s The Jackal Group and Shawn Levy’s 21 Laps.

Netflix declined to comment.

The show was previously set up at Fox, which unveiled its move to Netflix and its reconfigured creative team last August. It is based on the New York Times bestselling novel of the same name by Elin Hilderbrand, published by Little, Brown and Company in 2018. It’s a six-episode murder mystery following Nantucket native Celeste Otis, who on the Fourth of July is about to marry the perfect man, who just so happens to be from the wealthiest family in the area. But when a body is discovered floating in the harbor on the morning of what was to be the #weddingoftheyear, everyone at the party is suddenly a suspect.
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Ripley, an upcoming Showtime drama starring Andrew Scott, has found a new home at Netflix. Deals are still being finalized but the limited series from The Night Of’s Steven Zaillian, based on Patricia Highsmith’s bestselling quintet of Tom Ripley novels, is headed to the global streamer, I hear. Reps for Netflix and Showtime declined comment.

The relocation happened pretty fast over the last few days, sources said. When Deadline revealed last week that another upcoming Showtime series, drama Three Women, was being shopped after the network had opted not to proceed with it ahead of its integration into Paramount+, Ripley, which is in early stages of post-production, was still targeting a late 2023-early 24 launch on Showtime. (Three Women, whose first season is completed, is closing in on a pickup at Starz.)

While Ripley, which also stars Johnny Flynn and Dakota Fanning, is months from being ready to air, there had been buzz about the title among other premium networks and streamers. I hear the series’ executive producer Garrett Basch and WME only started exploring a move following the announcement earlier this week of Showtime’s new programming strategy built on TV universes with multiple Billions and Dexter spinoffs in the works. Netflix stepped in and bought the project preemptively after reviewing some footage, sources said.

I hear the eight-episode Ripley, based primarily on the The Talented Mr. Ripley novel, was designed as a limited series, in the vein of Zaillian’s acclaimed The Night Of, but there is a possibility to go beyond the first installment if it’s a hit.
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