Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan are set to star in a thriller called “Black Flies” that will be directed by filmmaker Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire. Open Road Films has acquired the U.S. rights to the project.
The film is based on Shannon Burke’s novel of the same name and follows two paramedics driving the streets of New York in an ambulance — one a young student who dreams of going to medical school and the other a grizzled veteran and one of the city’s best medics. “Black Flies” is a thriller about the toll that saving lives inflicts on paramedics, and the film aims to give a street-view look at one paramedic’s struggle to feel he’s making a difference.