Damien Chazelle has had one of the most interesting (and fastest) career rises in recent Hollywood memory. Only a few years ago, he worked on screenplays for horror movies like The Last Exorcism Part II (he also had a hand in 10 Cloverfield Lane), but the 32-year-old filmmaker now has an Oscar for his directing of La La Land, which followed his previous critical hit, Whiplash.
Chazelle’s gone back to genre writing with The Claim, a new thriller which, at least until now, was looking for a director.
Deadline reports that producers Scott Clayton and Russell Levine have tapped Ericson Core to direct The Claim for their production companies, which are respectively Oceanside Media and Route One Entertainment. The movie is described as a thriller about missing children and the ties that bind a family.
The thriller’s about a single father with a criminal record is compelled to find and save his kidnapped daughter while struggling against another couple who claim that his daughter is theirs.
Ericson Core originally comes from the cinematography world. Having worked as DP on the original The Fast And The Furious as well as Daredevil, Core has transitioned to the director’s chair where he’s previously helmed the Mark Wahlberg American football film, Invincible, and 2015’s questionable attempt at a Point Break remake.
Core will presumably be working with better material this time, and the idea of a thriller as the follow-up script to Whiplash and La La Land for Chazelle makes it a movie worth keeping more than one eye on. More as we get it.