Sony has emerged as the key buyer on “Skeletons,” the creature feature package starring Brie Larson, with J.J. Abrams producing via Bad Robot and J.T. Mollner attached to direct. Trade reporting around the European Film Market frames it as one of the market’s biggest plays so far, with Sony moving to close worldwide rights.
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The project’s hook is a classic horror flip executed from a fresh angle: a modern creature-film tale told through the perspective of a young boy who gradually realizes his parents are hiding something terrifying about his mother’s true nature. It’s the kind of premise that can play as a pure genre engine or an emotional landmine, depending on how hard the film leans into the family dynamic—and that tension is clearly part of the sales pitch.
Behind the scenes, Brian Duffield (“No One Will Save You”) wrote the screenplay, adapting a short story by Philip Fracassi. The package has also been circulating under a previous title (“Fail-Safe”), before arriving in Berlin as “Skeletons,” a repositioning that reads like a market-savvy move toward something punchier and more brandable.
Sales-wise, FilmNation, WME, and CAA have all been involved in handling the project at the market, which helps explain why this one was treated like a high-velocity bidding item rather than a slow-burning genre play. And with Mollner coming off “Strange Darling,” the project’s positioning is clear: take a director with heat, pair him with a bankable star, wrap it in a clean, high-concept logline, then let the market do what it does.
