The season of Guillermo del Toro continues.
Netflix is prepping to shoot a feature adaptation of The Boy in the Iron Box, an adaptation of a six-part horror story by author Chuck Hogan and Del Toro, who has Frankenstein hitting the streaming service in November.
Rupert Friend has been tapped to lead the feature, which will also have Kevin Durand and Jaeden Martell on the manifest.
David Prior, who previously helmed the 2020 horror movie The Empty Man, wrote the script and will direct. He also worked with del Toro on an episode of Cabinet of Curiosities.
Del Toro is producing the feature with longtime producing partner J. Miles Dale. Production is due to being in October.
Published by Amazon Original Stories for its Kindle platform last year, the story told of a group of mercenaries that crash-land on a remote snow summit. Taking refuge from wolves in a long-abandoned fortress, the men find a concealed pit witha box wrapped in chains. Terrors are soon unleashed.
Friend will play the leader of the group, a man named Liev. Durand is one of the mercenaries while Martell is the titular boy in the iron box.
Del Toro is in the midst of a banner fall season unlike he’s ever had. His adaptation of Frankenstein wrapped up its festival premieres and heading to a limited theatrical release Oct. 17 before hitting the streamer Nov. 7, while a Making & Art of book goes to stores Oct. 28. Beyond Fest is throwing a 12-film retrospective for him beginning at the end of September, he’s the guest artistic director at October’s AFI Fest, and he’s put a selection of his renown memorabilia collection up for auction.
Boy in the Iron Box is the latest collaboration between del Toro and Hogan, the author who wrote the crime novel Prince of Thieves, adapted as The Town by Ben Affleck. The duo famously co-wrote the horror book trilogy The Strain, which was later adapted as a horror drama by FX in the mid-2010s.
Friend has had a jam-packed year, beginning with appearing in the well-reviewed sci-fi horror movie Companion and then hitting the Cannes Film Festival for the premiere of Wes Anderson’s latest, The Phoenician Scheme. This summer, he faced dinosaurs in Jurassic World: Rebirth, which grossed $863 million worldwide and became one of the summer’s biggest hits.
Durand worked with del Toro by acting in the aforementioned Strain TV series. He starred as Proximus Caesar in 2024’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and this summer played the heavy opposite Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson in Paramount’s Naked Gun reboot.
Martell is known for playing Bill Denbrough, the leader of the Losers Club in the hit adaptation of Stephen King novel It, released in two parts in hit 2017 and 2019. He recently starred in and was a producer on Our Hero, Balthazar, a comedy-drama that premiered at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.
Friend is repped by UTA, Brillstein Entertainment Partners, and Hansen Jacobson while Prior is repped by Gersh, Untitled Entertainment, and McKuin Frankel.
Martell is repped by CAA, Emily Cho Talent Management and Jackoway Austen while Durand is repped by CAA, Alchemy Entertainment, and Brecheen Feldman.