This past weekend, the sci-fi action film Chronicle scored big at theaters, grossing $22 million in North America and taking the top spot at the box office, edging out the highly anticipated thriller Woman in Black starring Daniel Radcliffe.
Max Landis, 26, a former University of Miami School of Communication student, wrote the script.

Landis was a motion pictures student from 2006 to 2008 but left to pursue filmmaking in Los Angeles. At the SoC, he wrote many short screenplays that were produced by his peers.

Based on a story by Landis and director Josh Trank, Chronicle is about three teenagers who develop supernatural powers. Their friendship is tested and lives begin to change and spiral out of control when their newfound abilities are used irresponsibly.

 Critics, including Roger Ebert and The New Yorker, gave the movie positive reviews, praising Landis’s authentic dialogue and Trank’s directing debut.

“An auspicious beginning for a couple of exciting, young filmmaking voices,” raves The Associated Press.

Landis already has some big projects lined up in the near future. Disney bought an outer space adventure script he wrote that will be produced by Andrew Panay (Wedding Crashers).  Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment also acquired his pitch for Amnesty, a movie Ron Howard has signed on to direct. Also, 20th Century Fox has hired Landis for a retelling of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to be directed by Night of the Museum’s Shawn Levy. Landis is also writing and a fantasy thriller adaptation of the classic legend of “The Pied Piper.”

~  Brooke LeMaire
    February 7, 2012

To read the Associated Press review for Chronicle, click here:

*Watch a preview of Chronicle here: