Noah Hawley Set to Direct ‘Terrified’ Remake for Warner Bros.

Noah Hawley, a wizard of episodic television, struck out with his drowsy film debut, 2019’s “Lucy in the Sky,” starring Natalie Portman — it failed with critics and audiences.

Hawley, not one to be knocked out for too long, has decided to give cinema another shot. THR is reporting that his sophomore directorial effort will be “Terrified,” with Warner Bros., a remake of the Argentine supernatural thriller.

Hawley is slated to direct and produce the feature, which is being developed in collaboration with Demián Rugna, the writer-director of the original Spanish-language film, “Aterrados,” who is better known to U.S. audiences for “When Evil Lurks.”

The project will be a “reimagining” of the 2017 film, which follows a police officer and a group of paranormal researchers as they investigate a series of unexplained supernatural events concentrated in a single neighborhood of Buenos Aires.

I’m cautiously optimistic, but “Lucy in the Sky,” a highly stylized dramatization of NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak’s real‑life unraveling after returning from space, failed to take off. The film’s frequent aspect-ratio shifts and aesthetic flourishes became too distracting rather than insightful. There was tons of melodrama with not much depth.

I have not seen “Terrified,” which garnered unexceptional reviews, but it does signal a shift toward genre filmmaking for Hawley. It should be noted that last year, Variety reported that Hawley was also going to direct “Nowhere Fast,” a Texas-set crime thriller starring Chris Pine, but that project still seems to be in the early stages of development.

Hawley created the acclaimed FX series “Fargo” and “Legion” and most recently directed the acclaimed “Alien: Earth.” He’s known as a genius of television, but he’s now trying, yet again, to conquer cinema.