Sandra Bullock Returning to Netflix for New Movie After ‘Bird Box’ Sets Records

Sandra Bullock is staying in the Netflix business. Following the astronomical success of Bird Box, the Oscar-winner has signed on to star in an adaptation of the British television mini-series Unforgiven. The project will be written by Mission: Impossible – Fallout director Chrostopher McQuarrie and directed by Nora Fingscheidt.

Netflix announced the new project on Monday. It will serve as the follow-up to Fingscheidt’s directorial debut, System Crasher, which Germany submitted for the 2019 International Film Oscar.

According to Collider, the new film will likely be retitled to avoid confusion with the Clint Eastwood Western that won the 1992 Best Picture Oscar.

The film will be produced by Graham King’s GK Films and was once considered a starring role for Angelina Jolie. Bullock’s Fortis Films and Veronica Ferres of Construction Film will also produce. Executive producers include Nan Morales, Nicola Shindler, Sally Wainwright and Colin Vaines.

The original Unforgiven series was a three-part miniseries that aired on ITV in 2009. Created by Sally Wainwright. the series starred Suranne Jones (Coronation Street) as Ruth Slater, who was convicted of murdering two police officers as a teenager. After she was released from prison, she tries to find the sister she was forced to leave behind.

Bullock is an Oscar-winner for her role in The Blind Side and was also nominated for her performance in the King-produced Gravity. She was last seen in Bird Box, Susanne Bier’s adaptation of Josh Malerman’s science fiction novel about a world where humans cannot use their eyes outside to avoid being captured by unseen monsters that drive people to suicide.

After Bird Box was released on Netflix on Dec. 21, the movie became an instant success. In January 2019, Netflix claimed the movie was streamed by 80 million accounts within the first four weeks of its release.

“We are beginning to have our original movie offering mirror the success of our series offering for consumer enjoyment,” Netflix said at the time. “As a result of our success with original content, we’re becoming less focused on 2nd run programming.”

Although there are no plans for a film sequel at this time, Malerman wrote a sequel, Malorie, which was released in October.

“I’ve been asked a ton of times: people want to know what happened with Boy and Girl. But as much as I care about Boy and Girl, this isn’t their story. The Bird Box world is Malorie’s story, and I wanted to know more about her,” Malerman told Esquire. “I wanted to get to know her even better. At the end of the movie, I turned to my girl Allison and said, ‘I want to know what happens next!’ and she’s like, ‘Well, you know, you could make that happen,’ so it really was this warm feeling.”

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