It was a quiet 2011 for Abigail Breslin, having lent her voice to “Rango“ and pure name recognition to “New Years Eve,” but recently the young actress has lined up high-profile projects left and right, and we can now add Brad Anderson‘s “The Hive” to the list.
Breslin, having just wrapped crime drama “Perfect Sisters,” and currently shooting the much-anticipated “Ender’s Game,” has clearly aimed her career in a darker direction, which “The Hive” and others exemplify. The maneuver could be considered obvious, but Breslin has shown the chops needed to handle such adult material with ease, even early on in her already impressive filmography.
Behind the scenes, Anderson revived “The Hive” after Joel Schumacher was fired and replaced by the “Session 9” director, who also landed Halle Berry to headline the film once scheduling got worked out. Berry, who initially dropped out but is now back on board, plays an “emergency operator who must face her own fears in order to save a teenage girl (Breslin) from a disturbed killer.” The script is penned by Rich D’Ovidio, whose two other credits include the DMX vehicle “Exit Wounds” and “Thir13en Ghosts,” thereby draining the anticipation level of the script with every word in that sentence. At best this sounds like a trashy genre exercise with dramatic potential, and at the very least another “Gothika.”
We’re going to keep optimistic though, as Brad Anderson has followed through with solid genre and dramatic fare including “The Machinist” and “Transsiberian,” and one can hope he does the same thing here.
Production on “The Hive” is set for June in Los Angeles.
