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Exclusive: Badlands, the new indie genre label of longtime Sony exec Strauss and Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee’s Thunder Road, has preemptively acquired Hivemind, a new spec script from Peter Gaffney.

Hivemind is billed as an environmental thriller about the evolution of a new breed of killer wasps and the small town authorities who team up to prevent a deadly global outbreak. Gaffney, Adam Rodin and Brad Luff will serve as producers.

The acquisition is the second for Badlands in recent weeks on the heels of Lions, Tigers, and Bears, a creature feature that came in as a pitch from screenwriter Jayson Rothwell. The first project set to emerge from the company, making an aggressive push into the genre space, is Arachnid, a spider thriller directed by Ángel Gómez Hernández and starring Matilda Lutz, which recently wrapped production.

“We went into production six months after acquiring Arachnid,” Strauss told Deadline.

Exclusive: Badlands, the recently launched indie genre label of longtime Sony exec Strauss and Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee’s Thunder Road, has acquired Jayson Rothwell’s pitch for Lions, Tigers, and Bears, a film inspired by a true story from 2001, involving a lion, tiger, and bear rescued from a drug dealer’s house in Atlanta.

In the pitch, the unsavory characters keeping the animals in captivity get their just desserts when these ultimate predators break free and team up for revenge. In real life, the animals continued to live together and formed a lifelong bond in sanctuary.

The project marks Badlands’ second creature feature collaboration with Rothwell, on the heels of horror thriller Arachnid, directed by Ángel Gómez Hernández and starring Matilda Lutz, which recently wrapped production. Rothwell is otherwise best known for penning Netflix’s Jonas Åkerlund action thriller Polar, starring Mads Mikkelsen.

“When I heard the pitch...

Adeline Rudolph and Arden Cho are set to star in Perfect Girl, a psychological thriller set in the high-stakes world of K-pop. Directed by Hong Won-ki (Goedam), the film is being produced by Badlands, a genre-focused indie label tied to John Wick producers Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee, along with former Sony executive Scott Strauss.

Described as a mix between Scream and Black Swan, Perfect Girl follows a new K-pop supergroup on the verge of debuting. The girls have trained for years, but with only four spots available and just a week left before the final decision, tensions are at an all-time high.

The pressure mounts when a mysterious new trainee joins at the last moment, and soon, members start disappearing one by one. As the remaining girls fight for their place, the real question becomes: who is behind the attacks, and who will make it to the final lineup?...

Becoming a K-pop star may seem like a glamorous dream, but in the upcoming psychological thriller Perfect Girl, it turns into a nightmare as a group of aspiring K-pop artists are targeted and attacked one by one. Starring talented actresses Arden Cho and Adeline Rudolph, this new film is one we can’t wait to see. Here’s everything we know about it so far.

Originally titled Unnie, Perfect Girl is backed by the independent genre label Badlands. The thriller is set to be directed by Hong Won-ki from a screenplay written by Lynn Q. Yu. In addition, Sunshine and Moonshine will be crafting the soundtrack. Sunshine is behind many hits from the popular K-pop boy group BTS, while Moonshine has produced songs for K-pop girl groups such as Red Velvet, Twice, etc.

Perfect Girl is being described as a mix of the iconic slasher Scream and the psychological horror Black Swan.

Hong Won-ki, the South Korean director of recent Busan sales title Gory: A Horror Tale, will direct the K-pop psychological thriller Perfect Girl for Badlands to starAdeline Rudolph and Arden Cho.Upgrade will introduce to EFM buyers next month, with CAA Media Finance handling US rights.

Based on the 2023 Black List script by Lynn Q. Yu, the project is styled as Scream meets Black Swan set in the competitive world of K-pop, where slots are up for grabs as a new super group is about to be unveiled at a massive concert.

When a talented and mysterious new girl is introduced at the last minute,...

Hong Won-ki, the South Korean director of recent Busan sales title Gory: A Horror Tale, will direct the K-pop psychological thriller Perfect Girl for Badlands to starAdeline Rudolph and Arden Cho.Upgrade will introduce to EFM buyers next month, with CAA Media Finance handling US rights.

Based on the 2023 Black List script by Lynn Q. Yu, the project is styled as Scream meets Black Swan set in the competitive world of K-pop, where slots are up for grabs as a new super group is about to be unveiled at a massive concert.

When a talented and mysterious new girl is introduced at the last minute,...

Rolling off her lead role in “Mortel Kombat 2,” Adeline Rudolph will star opposite Arden Cho in “Perfect Girl,” an elevated psychological thriller set in the competitive world of K-pop.

“Perfect Girl” (previously titled “Unnie”) will be directed by genre filmmaker Hong Won-ki, with an original soundtrack created by K-pop powerhouses Sunshine and Moonshine.

Upgrade will introduce the project to buyers in a couple weeks at the EFM in Berlin, with CAA Media Finance handling domestic rights.

The project hails from Badlands, a one-year-old new indie genre label which brings together Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee’s Thunder Road (“John Wick”) and former Sony executive Scott Strauss.

The screenplay, penned by Lynn Q. Yu, landed on the 2023 Black List script and has been described as a “Scream-meets-Black Swan,” revolving around a brand new K-Pop super group preparing to be launched to the world at a massive concert. “A group of girls...

Adeline Rudolph, star of this fall’s Mortal Kombat 2, and Arden Cho (Partner Track) are set to lead Perfect Girl, a psychological thriller set against the competitive world of K-pop, from director Hong Won-ki (Goedam) and Scott Strauss’s Badlands.

Billed as Scream meets Black Swan, the film is based on a 2023 Black List script by Lynn Q. Yu. We were first to report on director Hong’s attachment last summer when the project was known as Unnie. Upgrade will introduce the project to buyers next week at EFM, with CAA Media Finance handling domestic rights.

Perfect Girl centers on a brand-new K-Pop super group that’s preparing to be launched to the world at a massive concert. A group of girls have trained for years for only four spots, and the final cut is only a week away. The competition is off the charts. But when a talented...

Adeline Rudolph (Mortal Kombat 2) and Arden Cho (Partner Track, Avatar: The Last Airbender) have been cast as the leads in Perfect Girl, a psychological thriller from director Hong Won-ki and Badlands, the genre label set up last year by John Wick producers Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee’s Thunder Road and longtime Screen Gems executive Scott Strauss.

Based on the 2023 Black List script Unnie by Lynn Q. Yu, Perfect Girl is set in the high-stakes world of K-pop. Described as Scream meets Black Swan, the story follows a group of trainees competing for four coveted spots in a new supergroup. When a talented and mysterious new girl is introduced to the casting competition at the last minute, things start to get strange: Girls are being hunted and attacked one by one.

Upgrade will launch Perfect Girl to international buyers at the European Film Market next month. CAA Media Finance is handling domestic rights.

South Korea’s Acemaker movieworks has revealed a first look at supernatural thriller Gory: A Horror Tale, which it will introduce to buyers at the Asian Contents & Film Market in Busan this weekend.

The film is directed by Hong Won-ki, whose credits include 2020 series Goedam and its spin-off feature Urban Myths, horror anthologies based on popular Korean urban legends that feature K-pop idols.

The cast includes Yoo Jae-myung of period action film Harbin, which premiered at Toronto, and Moon Chae-Won of TV series Payback: Money And Power and features Fengshui and Mood Of The Day.

Also part of the ensemble...

South Korea’s Acemaker movieworks is set to launch international sales on horror thriller Gory: A Horror Tale and romantic comedy Dreams Of You at the upcoming Asian Contents & Film Market in Busan.

Gory: A Horror Tale is directed by Hong Won-ki, whose credits include 2020 series Goedam and its spin-off feature Urban Myths, horror anthologies based on popular Korean urban legends that feature K-pop idols.

The feature stars Yoo Jae-Myung of period action film Harbin, which premiered earlier this month at Toronto, and Moon Chae-Won of TV series Payback: Money And Power and features Fengshui and Mood Of The Day.

Goedam and Zombie Hunter director Hong Won-ki is set to helm Unnie, a thriller described to be “in the vein of Black Swan” and set in the comptetitive world of K-pop, Deadline reports today.

Unnie is based on the 2023 Black List script from Lynn Q. Yu.

Casting is underway and production is slated to begin in Seoul and Los Angeles this January, under new genre label Badlands. Per Deadline,Badlands’ Scott Strauss, Thunder Road’s Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee, Renegade Capital’s Andrew Schwartzberg and Jon Shiffman, and Desert Bloom’s Jennice Lee will produce, with popular K-pop artists Sunshine and Moonshine creating an original soundtrack for the film.

Plot details are currently scarce, but Hong Won-ki is no stranger to blending K-pop and horror. Netflix’s horror anthology series Goedam is based on popular Korean urban legends that feature current and former K-pop idols. If that’s not enough,...