Netflix Wins Bidding War for New Jessica Chastain Movie

The 95th Annual Academy Awards are taking place tonight, and there’s an exciting line-up of actors presenting awards, including Jessica Chastain, who won the Oscar last year for Best Actress for playing the titular role in The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Recently, Chastain has been seen in The Good Nurse and George & Tammy, and it doesn’t look like she’s slowing down. In fact, The Good Nurse won’t be her last project with Netflix. According to Deadline, the streamer won a bidding war for Chastain’s new movie that is set to be based on I Am Not Alone, a 22-page short story by Chris Hicks. 

Lovecraft Country‘s Misha Green is signed on to write the script and direct the film, which is set to star Chastain. According to the report, Netflix is closing up a high-six-figure deal for an outright buy of the story, with mid-seven figures pledged to Green. Five bidders attempted to win the project over the course of 72 hours, but it all came down to Netflix and Warner Bros. Apparently, Netflix came out victorious in the end partly because Green wanted the project to go to a streamer. 

I Am Not Alone follows the mother of a young daughter whose life unravels when she suffers migraines that cause her to hallucinate creatures. Ultimately, it is a science fiction story about a woman who must defend her family against forces only she can see. 

The film is being produced by Genre Films’ Simon Kinberg and Audrey Chon, Bread & Circuses Entertainment’s Craig Flores, Scott Glassgold, and Peter Katz along with Chastain and her Freckle Pictures partner Kelly Carmichael, and Misha Green. Of course, this won’t be the first collaboration between Kinberg and Chastain, who previously worked together on The Martian, Dark Phoenix, and The 355.

“I’m a massive fan of Misha’s work, and been friends with Craig for years, so when I got sent this story and heard they were involved, I absolutely flipped out. Misha’s vision for it is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. And getting to work with Jessica again makes it even dreamer,” Kinberg said in a statement. 

Last year, ComicBook.com spoke with Chastain about working on The 355 with Kinberg.

“It was my idea to make the movie,” Chastain explained. “So I had the idea that I called all the actresses. I talked to [writer/director] Simon [Kingberg] and it was just kind of like, ‘All right, let’s all develop it together and create the characters.’ So,  I told him my idea, I told him the actresses that I thought would be great for it and he was like, ‘This is a great idea, let’s make this movie.’” 

Stay tuned for more updates about Netflix’s I Am Not Alone.