China’s Le Vision Entertainment Acquires ‘Near Earth Object’ (Exclusive)

Global disaster film takes place on the International Space Station

Le Vision Zhang Zhao Adam Goodman
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Chinese studio Le Vision Entertainment has bought the rights to “Near Earth Object,” a sci-fi disaster film set on the International Space Station, TheWrap has exclusively learned.

Brooks Elms and Glenn Sanders wrote the script. The duo recently sold “Snowfall,” a sci-fi thriller, to Gold Circle, Benderspink and Evan Astrowsky. No producer is attached to the project yet.

Le Vision president Adam Goodman, who was formerly president of Paramount Pictures Motion Picture Group, has long been interested in space movies. Goodman brought in and oversaw 2014’s “Interstellar,” which made $675 million worldwide, and “Arrival,” the sci-fi drama starring Amy Adams currently in theaters, for Paramount.

Space films have been particularly popular in recent years. Warner Bros.’ 2014 astronaut romantic drama “Gravity,” starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, grossed $723 million worldwide and earned director Alfonso Cuarón an Oscar. Sony’s “Passengers,” headlined by Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt as two space travelers trapped in malfunctioning vessel, is set to open on Dec. 21. And STX is releasing its own outer space love story, “The Space Between Us,” on Feb. 3, 2017.

In September, Le Vision, a subsidiary of Chinese tech conglomerate LeEco, acquired Goodman’s Dichotomy Creative Group and hired Goodman as president to oversee a slate of English-language films that would be distributed internationally over a wide range of platforms. At the time, Goodman told TheWrap that he wasn’t worried about jumping to a new studio without established intellectual property in its stable, because there’s so much to uncover in untapped markets.

“I think the opportunity for us is to create what you haven’t seen,” he said. “Not what you have seen. Companies are doing what we have seen very well.”

Elms and Sanders are represented by UTA and Greg Weiss at One Entertainment. Elms will direct indie film “Montauk Highway” this spring. Sanders penned a script for a fantasy thriller currently in pre-production for Radar Pictures and Greenlight Media.

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