EXCLUSIVE: TriStar Pictures has preemptively acquired The Last Orbit, a forthcoming novel from New York Times bestselling author Ben Mezrich, inking a deal for Matt Shakman (The Fantastic Four: First Steps) to direct from a story by Josh Friedman (Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes) adapted from the book.
Slated for publication by Authors Equity in Q1 2027, The Last Orbit is speculative fiction about the asteroid YR4, which has a statistically significant chance of hitting Earth or the moon in 2032. The novel is science real and imagines what a realistic international response would be as everyone has to come together in order to save the planet.
Beau Flynn is producing on behalf of FlynnPictureCo., the company behind the upcoming live-action Moana, Netflix’s second-most-popular film Red Notice, and more. Scott Sheldon will exec produce alongside Mezrich.
Emmy-nominated for his directing on series WandaVision and The Great, Shakman is coming off of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, an MCU title starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn that grossed over $521M worldwide, opening last summer. Additional credits include Apple’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and Wild Things, the upcoming Siegfried & Roy series for Apple TV.
A writer and producer known for his work in science fiction, Friedman was one of the writers on Shakman’s Fantastic Four film and has also worked on the screenplay or story for projects like Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, Terminator: Dark Fate, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, and James Cameron’s recent pair of Avatar sequels. In television, he’s the creator and exec producer of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
Frequently adapted for film by Sony, Mezrich is the author of The Accidental Billionaires, the international bestseller that was adapted into the Academy Award-winning The Social Network written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher. He also penned The Antisocial Network, which was the basis for Craig Gillespie’s film Dumb Money on the GameStop short squeeze of 2021. Selling over 11 million novels worldwide, he has received various industry awards, including a USC Scripter Award alongside Aaron Sorkin for The Social Network.
Shakman is repped by Untitled, CAA, and Yorn, Levine; Mezrich by CAA and WME for publishing; and Friedman by CAA and Jackoway Austen.