EXCLUSIVE: In a pre-emptive strike, Amblin Partners took the Spenser Cohen spec Distant off the table which has been described as When Harry Met Sally meets The Martian. Amblin is expected to produce with Automatik (Brian Kavanaugh-Jones) and Cohen’s producing partner Anna Halberg. The deal is said to be worth mid-six figures.
Distant follows an asteroid miner who, after crash-landing on an alien planet, must make his way across the harsh terrain, running out of oxygen, hunted by strange creatures, to the only other survivor: a woman who is trapped in her escape pod.
Deadline hears that the company is putting the project on the fast track.
Cohen previously scripted Netflix’s Extinction, the sci-fi thriller that starred Michael Peña and Lizzy Kaplan about a man whose premonitions about a deadly attack comes true when extraterrestrials attack Earth. Cohen also sold an adaptation of upcoming novel The Dark Side to ABC Signature with Black Label Media producing (Cohen will write). He is also producing Fabled along with Tom Hardy and Dean Baker for Legendary TV.
Spenser and Halberg were repped in the deal by Verve, Anonymous Content and law firm McKuin Frankel Whitehead.
Must Read Stories
Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy.