Sandra Bullock to Go Post-Apocalyptic in Netflix Thriller ‘Bird Box’
Sandra Bullock has been relatively quiet as of late. She starred in Our Brand Is Crisis and lent her vocals to Minions in 2015, which means the last time anybody actually saw her face (sorry, Our Brand Is Crisis) was in 2013’s Gravity. Presumably, she’s been getting some quality time with the family while waiting for the right script, which has hopefully come in the form of the all-ladies Ocean’s 8 due next year. But today brings the news that the former Miss Congeniality has now laid plans for another future project, and this one’s going online.
Bullock has made herself the latest addition to Netflix’s deep roster of talent in signing onto Bird Box, a feature set for release on the online streaming platform. The film, written by Arrival scribe Eric Heisserer, focuses on a woman and a pair of children (the Variety item breaking the news didn’t specify whether they were her children or not) who are blindfolded and then sent through a post-apocalyptic landscape. As they use the sound of a river to safely travel, they attempt to discover the identity of their original captor. The film will be directed by Susanne Bier, one-time Best Foreign Film Academy Award winner, one-other-time woman responsible for utter trainwreck Serena. So this one could really go either way.
That being said, the public clearly buys whatever crisis-mode Bullock is selling, based on the warm reception for the last film that saw the woman placed in life-or-death circumstances and left to fend for herself. The similarities between Gravity and Bird Box end there, however, and the public’s taste for post-apocalyptic material seems to be fading. With production scheduled to get up and running in the fall, we’ll most likely find out next year.