In 2024, attorney Tracy Sierra made her writing debut with the thriller novel Nightwatching. Now, a film adaptation is in the works at Amazon MGM Studios, with Ridley Scott producing through his company Scott Free – and Deadline reports that Mila Kunis (Wake Up Dead Man) has just signed on to star in the film!
Story
The story Sierra crafted for Nightwatching has the following description: Home alone with her young children during a blizzard, a mother tucks her son back into bed in the middle of the night. She hears a noise—old houses are always making some kind of noise. But this sound is disturbingly familiar: it’s the tread of footsteps, unusually heavy and slow, coming up the stairs. She sees the figure of a man appear down the hallway, shrouded in the shadows. Terrified, she quietly wakes her children and hustles them into the oldest part of the house, a tiny, secret room concealed behind a wall. There they hide as the man searches for them, trying to tempt the children out with promises and scare the mother into surrender. In the suffocating darkness, the mother struggles to remain calm, to plan. Should she search for a weapon or attempt escape? But then she catches another glimpse of him. That face. That voice. And at once she knows her situation is even more dire than she’d feared, because she knows exactly who he is—and what he wants.
Copies of the novel are available for purchase on Amazon.
Film Adaptation
Laura Moss and Brendan J. O’Brien wrote the initial screenplay adaptation, and the current draft was written by TJ Cimfel and David White. Adam Schindler and Brian Netto, who worked with Sam Raimi on episodes of the Raimi-produced anthology series 50 States of Fright and on the Raimi-produced thriller Don’t Move (and will be working with him again on Every House Is Haunted), are set to direct Nightwatching, which goes into production in California at the end of this month.
Ridley Scott is producing alongside Scott Free’s Michael Pruss and Sam Roston. Erik Feig, Jessica Switch, and Emily Wissink are producing for Picturestart, while Mila Kunis and Lisa Sterbakov do the same for for Kunis’s new production company Brick for Sheep. Roston and Avital Siegel will oversee production for Scott Free. Graham Taylor and Christopher Slager serve as executive producers for financier Fifth Season, with Justin Alvarado Brown executive producing for Scott Free.
I haven’t read Sierra’s novel, but this sounds like it has the makings of a great thriller. Schindler and Netto already made a great thriller with Don’t Move, so Nightwatching is in good hands, and Mila Kunis is a great choice for a heroine.
Does Nightwatching sound interesting to you? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.
