SPIDERHEAD FKA ESCAPE FROM SPIDERHEAD

SPIDERHEAD FKA ESCAPE FROM SPIDERHEAD

Studio: NETFLIX

Prod Co: Conde Nast, Screen Arcade
Dates: March 30th 2020
Location: New Mexico
Budget: $40M

Writer (Current): Wernick & Reese

Source Material By: George Saunders

Producer: Jeremy Steckler, Eric Newman, Bryan Unkeless, Scott Morgan

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Casting Director: Denise Chamian

Cast: Talent: Miles Teller [JEFF: In Discussions]

Logline: A man plagued with guilt over the accidental murder of his wife agrees to participate in a voluntary prison system where inmates are
treated with mind-control drugs.

Roles:
[JEFF]
Lead Male (25 - 35)
An everyman; Jeff is imprisoned at a futuristic prison for second-degree murder. He voluntarily participates in drug trials where he selects other participants to receive doses of a drug that make them violent and eventually suicidal. When Jeff is asked to administer a dangerous drug to Lizzy, another inmate whom he loves, Jeff discovers the prison is actually a corporation and works with VERLAINE to overthrow the company's founder.
In Discussions Miles Teller

[STEVE ABNESTI]
Lead Male (30 - 45)
Cheery, sharp, nerd-meets-hippie. Steve Jobs type. Abnesti is the founder of Spiderhead, a medical facility that administers drug trials to inmates. Abnesti pretends his goal is to create a drug that instills love in one another and prevents crime, but his real intent is to develop a drug that forces people into obedience. Abnesti is beaten and presumably killed when Jeff gives him a high dosage of the obedience drug and turns the other inmates against him.

[MARK VERLAINE]
Supporting Male (25 - 29)
Deadpan, a bit suspicious of life, highly competent. An employee of Spiderhead, Verlaine had hopes of being a medical doctor before he began administering the drug trials. Plagued with guilt over his participation in the drug trials, Verlaine provides Jeff with high dosages of an obedience drug to use on Abesti.

[LIZZY]
Supporting Female (25 - 29)
Smart, fast-talking, darkly pretty. Lizzy is imprisoned at Spiderhead for a non-violent offense and works in the facility's kitchenette, preparing snacks with Jeff. Lizzy and Jeff fall in love, and she escapes from the facility with him, after Abnesti tries to get Jeff to administer a lethal drug to her.

[HEATHER]
Supporting Female (25 - 29)
A pale blonde woman, pretty in a colorless kind of way. An imate with a violent past, Abnesti gives Heather a drug that makes her temporarily fall in love with Jeff. Heather dies when Abnesti gives her a dose of a different drug that makes her reach paranoia, then commit suicide in front of Jeff.

[SARAH]
Supporting Female (45)
Forty-five going on sixty, white trash, stringy hair, bulgy where you'd prefer not to be. Sarah participates in a drug trial that makes her temporarily fall in love and have sex with Jeff. When taken off her obedience drug, she joins the inmates in attacking Abnesti.

[ROGAN]
Supporting Male (25 - 29)
A very mean looking man. A violent offender, Rogan is placed in a room with Jeff but doesn't harm him when Heather chooses not to administer a drug to him. Rogan later joins the inmates in attacking Abnesti.

[ADAM]
Supporting Male (30 - 39)
A junkie. In flashbacks, Adam is seeing snorting heroin and not sharing his drugs with Jeff, leading to a fight in which their trailer is set on fire, and Jeff pulls him to safety.