New Shawn Levy project is coming to Netflix
He might be one of the most in-demand blockbuster directors in the business, but Shawn Levy will be remaining in the Netflix business for the foreseeable future, with a brand new project being lined up at the streaming service.
The filmmaker’s production company 21 Laps has a first-look development deal with the platform, and the next addition to its slate will be literary adaptation Never Lie. Author Freida McFadden has become one of the biggest names in publishing over the last decade, and the book being brought to Netflix spent 11 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.
The story focuses on a newly-married couple on the hunt for their dream home, where they stumble upon a remote mansion that used to belong to a famed female psychiatrist, who’d disappeared without a trace four years previously.
When inclement weather traps the couple indoors of their potential purchase, the wife investigates the building and discovers a secret room with audio recordings of the doctor’s conversations with her patients, one of whom she has a direct connection with. The novel has been compared to Gone Girl in terms of tone, style, and twists, with Netflix swooping in to acquire the rights.
It continues the ongoing partnership between Levy and Netflix, currently riding high on the record-breaking box office success of his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut Deadpool & Wolverine. He’s also an executive producer of smash hit Stranger Things, and helmed the recent episodic adaptation of Pulitzer Prize-winner All the Light We Cannot See.
In amongst his litany of other Netflix credits, Levy additionally executive produced cancelled fantasy show Shadow and Bone and axed coming-of-age dramedy I Am Not Okay with This, EPs the Unsolved Mysteries reboot, produced slasher There’s Someone Inside Your House, helmed an episode of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and directed Ryan Reynolds-led sci-fi The Adam Project.
Not only that, but Levy serves as an executive producer on the streamer’s upcoming mystery drama The Perfect Couple with Nicole Kidman in the lead role, and in December 2023 signed on to step behind the camera on an international heist comedy with regular collaborator Reynolds front-and-centre.
Netflix is certainly getting the most out of its deal with Levy’s 21 Laps, with the high concept premise and nail-biting potential of Never Lie carrying all of the ingredients to be a major success whenever the thriller makes its way through development, into production, and eventually onto the screen.