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EXCLUSIVE: With a horror project for Universal/Monkeypaw and a Night of the Living Dead sequel still in the offing, Nikyatu Jusu has begun development on The Fly, a new film based on David Cronenberg’s body horror masterwork, which she wrote and will direct for 20th Century Studios and Chernin Entertainment.
While the film’s plot is under wraps, sources stressed that it’s set in the universe of Cronenberg’s film, rather than a straightforward remake. Nikyatu will direct from her own script, with Chernin Entertainment’s Peter Chernin and Jenno Topping producing. The project coalesces in a moment when body horror is very much back in vogue, with the success of Coralie Fargeat’s Cannes prize-winner The Substance, which has grossed over $43M worldwide and drummed up Oscar buzz for star Demi Moore.
A landmark in both science fiction and horror cinema, Cronenberg’s The Fly follows scientist Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum), whose experiments with teleportation take a terrifying turn when his DNA is accidentally fused with a fly’s. His transformation is both physical and psychological, a deterioration that blurs humanity and monstrosity, pushing boundaries of on-screen horror with a level of realism enhanced by Chris Walas’ groundbreaking practical effects, which garnered an Academy Award for Best Makeup.
Based on George Langelaan’s 1957 short story, previously adapted as a 1958 film starring Vincent Price, the film co-starring Geena Davis was released by 20th Century Fox in 1986, grossing over $60 million globally on a relatively modest budget. For Cronenberg, who debuted his most recent film The Shrouds at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, this commercial success soldified his reputation beyond cult status, building on the buzz around titles like Scanners and Videodrome and proving that his brand of body horror could appeal to mainstream audiences.
Jusu has been one of the most closely watched genre filmmakers in town since the Sundance debut of her psychological horror film Nanny, starring Anna Diop and Michelle Monaghanm, which won the Grand Jury Prize in U.S. Dramatic Competition in 2022 before going on to be snapped up by Amazon Studios and Blumhouse in a competitive situation. Her first feature explored the unsettling experiences of Aisha (Diop), an undocumented Senegalese immigrant working as a nanny for an affluent white couple in New York City, while struggling to save enough money to bring her son from Senegal to America.
Jusu’s next project for Monkeypaw and Universal has been percolating for some time in the shadows, and still has no official title. However, in 2022, the filmmaker revealed to Deadline that the project expands on Suicide by Sunlight, her acclaimed short film, which world premiered in the Midnight Section of Sundance in 2019. Per Jusu, it’s “about day-walking Black vampires who are protected from the sun by their melanin.” MGM has also acquired the rights to a Night of the Living Dead sequel that Jusu is set to direct, as we were also first to report.
Also previously directing a block of The CW’s Two Sentence Horror Stories, Jusu is represented by CAA, M88, and Granderson Des Rochers.