EXCLUSIVE: 20th Century Studios is in development on The First Omen, a prequel to the original 1976 Fox movie TheOmen, with Legion and briar patch episodic director Arkasha Stevenson making her feature directorial debut.
Stevenson will also handle the rewrite, alongside writing partner Tim Smith. Smith is set to executive produce with Phantom Four producing.
David S. Goyer and Keith Levine are producing for Phantom Four, with Gracie Wheelan overseeing for the production label.
The original 1976 movie, a hit in its day which grossed over $60 million at the domestic box office (unadjusted for inflation) and starred Gregory Peck, Lee Remick and Harvey Stephens, follows an American ambassador who believes his 5-year-old son is the Antichrist.
The pic spawned two sequels, 1978’s Damian: Omen II ($26.5M domestic BO) and 1981’s The Final Conflict ($20.5M) as well as a 2006 reboot that grossed $120M worldwide and starred Liev Schreiber, Julia Stiles and David Thewlis. There have been other follow-ups on the small screen.
Stevenson and Smith first worked together on the short film pineapple, which debuted at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, which Stevenson directed and Smith produced. They later sold the concept as a TV series to AMC, which they both wrote the pilot for. They are currently also working on Beautiful Monsters, an original project set up at Amazon; and both co-executive produced Channel Zero: Butcher’s Block for Syfy, on which Stevenson directed every episode.
They continued their collaboration with Nick Antosca on Brand New Cherry Flavor at Netflix, with Stevenson directing the pilot and Smith a co-producer. Stevenson has also directed episodes of FX’s Legion and USA’s briar patch. Prior to entertainment, Stevenson was a photojournalist for the Los Angeles Timeswhile Smith worked on Duck Butter and searching as a production supervisor.
Stevenson and Smith are repped by Verve and attorney Melissa Rogal.
Goyer and Levine’s Phantom Four specializes in high-concept elevated genre fare for both film and television. Upcoming releases include the hellraiser reboot at Hulu on the feature side and season two of the acclaimed Apple series Foundation on which Goyer is showrunner and EP. Goyer’s also co-writing and producing the upcoming Sandman for Netflix with Neil Gaiman. They are also behind the chart-topping Batman Unburied podcast on Spotify.