Verve has signed two high-profile writers in Joe Ahearne and Malachi Smyth, TheWrap has learned.
Ahearne is a writer-director who wrote Danny Boyle‘s thriller “Trance,” starring James McAvoy, Rosario Dawson and Vincent Cassel.
Ahearne has directed a number of “Doctor Who” episodes, one of which earned him a BAFTA nomination. He also wrote and directed the BBC miniseries “Apparitions” and has written on “Da Vinci’s Demons” for David Goyer.
Smyth is the writer of “Gateway 6,” which topped the 2014 Brit List. Tanel Toom is attached to direct the film for producers Sentinel Entertainment and Stigma Films.
Set in the future on a war-ravaged Earth, four soldiers man the last bastion — an outpost in a sea-covered continent — awaiting relief or the enemy, whichever comes first. But as the empty weeks turn to months, a paranoia descends that tests relationships to their breaking point, especially with the arrival of a mysterious boat.
Ahearne is managed by Danny Sherman and Elizabeth Robinson and also repped by Natasha Galloway at United Agents, while Smyth is managed by Andrew Mills in the UK.