The production company Legendary Pictures is known mostly for its big budget superhero fare or their high-grossing R-rated comedies. I’m sure it’s worked on a few films released in the winter, but most of the films it has produced work best in the summer sun. This makes their next proposed project all the more interesting, at least in theory.
Variety reports Legendary is getting into – and we use these words very lightly – “micro-budget” thriller territory, and will be funding As Above, So Below, a thriller from Drew and John Erick Dowdle, who last gave audiences 2010’s forgettable horror Devil and the meh remake Quarantine, but the rest of their films are of a higher quality. Their overseas thriller The Coup made quite a few casting choices last year, but has apparently hit a snag in the meantime.
The details are rather sparse on the project, but sources told Variety that the plot would “follow two archaeologists in search of a lost treasure in the catacombs below Paris.” It sounds like the perfect marriage between limited costs and spooky ass location. Every good thriller film knows how to work a catacomb to its advantage, am I right? Like their other collaborations, they’ll be co-writing the script while John directs and Drew produces.
Legendary will probably be footing a bill between $5-$10 million for the film, which certainly makes the “micro” side of things seem rather silly. Their latest release, the Jackie Robinson biopic 42, cost around $35 million, and it was definitely a smaller production for them. In comparison, Man of Steel, another Legendary production, has an estimated budget of $225 million. Excuse me, I have to go plant my money tree now.
