EXCLUSIVE: Netflix is getting into The Cage, after acquiring a high-concept action thriller spec of the same name by Chris Grillot and Malcolm Badewitz.
The streamer has enlisted Jaume Collet-Serra to direct following his success with Carry-On, their action thriller which sits as their third most popular film of all time. Plot details are under wraps, though sources tell us this is a cop film. Dylan Clark will produce for Dylan Clark Productions (The Batman, The Penguin), with Brian Williams overseeing the project for the company.
A former crime journalist turned screenwriter, Grillot is also currently adapting Daniel Church’s novel The Hollows for Paul and David Brooks’ Longshot Films alongside Jason Fuchs and his FiveTen Productions. His thriller Bella is being produced by Chad and Carey Hayes, with production set to begin in March. In 2023, he adapted his erotic thriller short story “Bliss” as a feature for Escape Artists/Sony, selling his horror film Chatter to Crypt TV. Grillot has had three scripts on the annual Black List and is repped by CAA, Navigation Media Group, and attorney Will Jacobson.
Badewitz is a screenwriter from Seattle who has worked on feature projects for A/Vantage Pictures, Mandalay, Bad Robot, Sixth and Idaho and Sony Pictures. He’s repped by CAA, Untitled and attorney Adam Cooper.
On the heels of Carry-On, which has accrued over 172 million views since December 2024, Collet-Serra signed a multiyear overall film deal with Netflix last July, setting the psychological thriller An Innocent Girl as his first feature under the pact. Most recently, he’s directed Play Dead, a survival thriller described as Don’t Breathe meets 1917, as well as a reimagining of the classic actioner Cliffhanger, starring Lily James and Pierce Brosnan. In December, Collet-Serra hired exec Max Jacoby to help run his production company Jadis Collective, as we first reported. He is repped by LBI Entertainment and Yorn, Levine, Barnes.