Josh Hutcherson’s Directorial Debut Coming in February
Josh Hutcherson’s directorial debut Ape and the rest of “The Big Script” film incubator are headed for release in February, according to two writers on the project.
Condé Nast’s The Scene will be the online home for Ape, as well as Djochoua Belovarski’s LYRA, Brad Martocello’s Boy in a Backpack, Jamie Mayer’s Crowbar Smile, and Scott Simonsen’s Honor Council.
The news emerged after Ape writer Jon Johnstone and writer-director Mayer both confirmed the information online. Mayer, whose first young adult novel is also scheduled for release next month, made the announcement on her new website:
Jon Avnet and Rodrigo Garcia’s Indigenous Media and Hutcherson’s Turkeyfoot Productions co-produced the films from features submitted to Hollywood’s script database The Black List.
IM and Turkeyfoot hope the shorts will spark interest in a feature-length version of one or more of the films. One major clue that Hutcherson’s film may, in fact, be getting feature treatment later this year comes from Johnstone’s Linkedin profile, where he says producers are “eyeing a summer or fall 2017 production start.”