Well, here’s a story we had sitting in our inbox and unfortunately neglected, but Deadline have confirmed that Cillian Murphy has replaced Jason Isaacs in the forthcoming virus thriller “Retreat.”
The project, first announced way back in February, follows a “husband and wife (Murphy and Newton) who rent a remote island cottage while trying to repair their marriage. One day they find a biohazard-suited soldier washed up on the beach, who warns them that everybody on the mainland has been killed by an airborne virus. That’s when the psychological fun-and-games begin…” David Tennant was previously linked for the role of the soldier but it’s not known if he’s still involved. As for Isaacs, he’s currently filming the Taylor Lautner vehicle “Abduction” and then he’s moving on to shoot the six part BBC series “Case Histories” afterward.
Obviously, this isn’t the only virus thriller in the works as Steven Soderbergh has his 3D “Contagion” (a project he wanted to get together quickly because of other similarly themed and competing films in development) shooting this fall, but “Retreat” does sound like a more intimate take on the genre as opposed to the globe-trotting span of Soderbergh’s film.
Carl Tibbets will be making his writing/directing debut with the film that is described as a cross between “Dead Calm” and “Knife In The Water.” Filming begins in September.
