EXCLUSIVE: Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group Motion Pictures has tapped screenwriter Evan Daugherty (Divergent) to pen the sci-fi action feature, The Ultimate Weapon. The film based on a story by Allen will be financed by AMGMP, with exec producers to include Allen, Carolyn Folks, Jennifer Lucas and Matthew Signer.
The Ultimate Weapon takes place in a version of the present day where World War II is not over. In fact, history has shown us that the Nazis were actually researching a weapon far greater than the atomic bomb, investing heavily in the ability to achieve time travel. Pic sees them use that ability to travel to the present to bring back technology that they can use in the past to win the war. Countering the Nazis is a NATO-backed team with the technology to determine when they will break into the present time. The team has formed an elite group of super agents to stop the Nazis from taking the technology back to the past, its only goal being to make sure that the Allies remain the winners of World War II.
AMGMP’s EVP of Production & Content, Signer, will oversee the project with fellow EPs Allen, Folks and Lucas.
“THE ULTIMATE WEAPON has all the elements of a compelling and thought-provoking history-based epic nonstop action/thriller,” said Allen Media Group’s Founder, Chairman and CEO, Allen. “Screenwriter Evan Daugherty is a phenomenally talented artist with the cinematic vision necessary to bring this story to the big screen, and we are thrilled to have him on board.”
Daugherty adds that “when Byron first pitched me this idea, I immediately saw the incredible potential. I love World War II films, I love time travel films, and it goes without saying, I’m absolutely obsessed with action. Together with the Allen Media team, we will blend those genres together, creating a film unlike anything audiences have ever seen.”
Daugherty broke out with Snow White and the Huntsman, which he wrote as an NYU college student and sold to Universal in one of the biggest spec script deals in history, following a bidding war. He also co-wrote an adaptation of Veronica Roth’s bestselling dystopian YA novel Divergent for Summit Entertainment/Lionsgate as well as 2014’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for Paramount and producer Michael Bay. The scribe also contributed to the story of Tomb Raider, the 2018 reimagining of the storied video game franchise, from GK Films and MGM. In addition to films which have collectively grossed over $1B worldwide, Daugherty has sold and developed television pilots for ABC, NBC, Syfy and Hulu.
Allen Media Group Motion Pictures is a full-service, theatrical motion picture distribution company that released 2017’s highest-grossing independent movie, the shark thriller 47 Meters Down, which grossed over $44.3 million. Other notable titles from the company include the 47 Meters Down sequel 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, the historical thriller Chappaquiddick and the Scott Cooper-directed Western Hostiles, led by Christian Bale.
Daugherty is repped by Alibi’s Jake Wagner, Verve and McKuin Frankel Whitehead.