TriStar Pictures has acquired rights to adapt Ben Mezrich's forthcoming novel 'The Last Orbit' into a film, with Matt Shakman set to direct. The project, penned by Josh Friedman, explores a speculative scenario involving an asteroid threat in 2032. Production involves Beau Flynn and others, building on the team's science fiction expertise.
TriStar Pictures preemptively acquired 'The Last Orbit,' a novel by New York Times bestselling author Ben Mezrich, for adaptation into a feature film. The book, slated for publication by Authors Equity in the first quarter of 2027, is described as speculative fiction centered on asteroid YR4, which has a statistically significant chance of impacting Earth or the moon in 2032. It imagines a realistic international response as global efforts unite to avert planetary disaster.
Matt Shakman, known for directing the Emmy-nominated series WandaVision and The Great, will helm the project. His recent credits include The Fantastic Four: First Steps, an MCU film starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn, which grossed over $521 million worldwide after opening last summer. Shakman also directed Apple's Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and is attached to the upcoming Siegfried & Roy series for Apple TV+.
The screenplay comes from Josh Friedman, a writer-producer with a background in science fiction. Friedman contributed to Shakman's Fantastic Four film and has worked on Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds, Terminator: Dark Fate, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, and James Cameron's recent Avatar sequels. In television, he created and executive produced Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
Beau Flynn is producing through FlynnPictureCo., the banner behind the live-action Moana, Netflix's Red Notice, and other projects. Scott Sheldon will executive produce alongside Mezrich. Mezrich's works have frequently been adapted by Sony, including The Accidental Billionaires, which became the Academy Award-winning The Social Network, and The Antisocial Network, the basis for Dumb Money. He has sold over 11 million novels worldwide and received awards such as the USC Scripter Award with Aaron Sorkin for The Social Network.
Shakman is represented by Untitled, CAA, and Yorn, Levine; Mezrich by CAA and WME for publishing; and Friedman by CAA and Jackoway Austen.
