EXCLUSIVE: Michael Chaves, the filmmaker behind last summer’s New Line smash The Conjuring: Last Rites, has enlisted Chris Pine (Carousel) to lead Yeti, a new survival thriller for Netflix that also will star Iona Bell (The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping), Ray Winstone (Damsel) and Sofia Boutella (Rebel Moon).
Yeti takes place deep in the Alps, where an avalanche has unleashed something primeval from the glacial ice. With no hope of rescue, a father (Pine) and his daughter (Bell) must fight to survive against a merciless predator that blends in with the snow.
The film is being produced under a partnership established in 2021, in which Sony Pictures offers Netflix a first-look at any films it intends to make for streaming. It originated as a spec by Peter Gaffney with rewrites by Sean Tretta. Erik Feig and Jessica Switch are producing for Picturestart, alongside Dan Kagan, with Hans Ritter and Pine exec producing.
Coming off the Sundance premiere of Carousel, a romantic drama where he stars opposite Jenny Slate, Pine just recently entered talks to star opposite Emma Stone in the Universal rom-com The Catch, as we first reported. Upcoming, he’ll also be seen in the sci-fi comedy Alpha Gang from filmmakers David and Nathan Zellner. He is repped by CAA, Brillstein Entertainment Partners, and Gendler Kelly & Cunningham.
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Bell also is coming off a Sundance premiere with Fing!, a family fantasy film in which she stars alongside Taika Waititi and Mia Wasikowska. The young English up-and-comer next will be seen in the role of Lou Lou in Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. She is repped by Mark Jermin Management.
Known for his work in films like The Departed, Sexy Beast, Beowulf and Cold Mountain, Winstone has been in business with Netflix only recently, on the Millie Bobby Brown fantasy flick Damsel — the streamer’s 10th most popular film of all time — and the Guy Ritchie series The Gentlemen. He is repped by the UK’s Modern Collective.
Recently, Boutella has been seen starring in Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon films for the service, along with Matthew Vaughn’s Argylle, The Killer’s Game opposite Dave Bautista and the MGM+ series Rogue Heroes. Next up, she’ll appear alongside Elizabeth Banks in the genre-bender DreamQuil, premiering at SXSW. She is repped by CAA, Untitled, 42, and Hansen Jacobson Teller.
Chaves is best known for his work inside the Conjuring Universe, on projects including The Curse of La Llorona, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, The Nun II and The Conjuring: Last Rites, which broke ground last year as the highest-grossing film in the series, at nearly $500M worldwide. He is repped by CAA and Hirsch Wallerstein Hayum.
Gaffney is repped by Verve and manager Adam Rodin; Tretta by Adventure Media and Behr Abramson Levy Johnson.