Believe it or not, Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way has been trying to get a “Twilight Zone” movie off the ground for more than 15 years. The project has been a revolving door of writers and directors dating back to 2011, when Matt Reeves, and then Joseph Kosinski, signed on to direct.
However, now it looks like it might finally actually happen.
According to TheInSneider, Ben Stiller is now attached to direct “The Twilight Zone” for Appian Way and Warner Bros. Stiller has been developing the film quietly for about six months now.
It’s currently considered an open writing assignment, meaning the script is still in flux — but the direction is clear: unlike the 1983 anthology film, this new take will focus on one contained story, not multiple shorts.
One version of the script reportedly followed a fighter pilot testing a prototype rocket capable of faster-than-light travel, only to find himself 125 years in the future in a utopian society that—shocker—isn’t quite what it seems. Standard Twilight Zone fare: sci-fi premise, philosophical bite. That logline, though, is not final — a new writer could bring in something entirely different.
Stiller’s attachment makes sense. He’s a longtime fan of Rod Serling’s original series and has openly cited it as a major influence on “Severance,” his well-reviewed Apple Original series.
Stiller has had a fairly fruitful directing — “Zoolander 2” notwithstanding. His credits include “Reality Bites,” “The Cable Guy,” “Zoolander,” “Tropic Thunder” and “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.”