Neil Marshall will direct and produce a new horror action thriller titled “The Lair,” with Highland Film Group handling the worldwide sales.
“The Lair” centers on Royal Air Force pilot Lt. Kate Sinclair, who is on her final flight mission when her jet is shot down over one of the most dangerous rebel strongholds of Afghanistan. She finds refuge in an abandoned underground bunker where deadly man-made creatures — half-human, half-alien and hungry for human flesh — are awakened. Sinclair barely escapes and unknowingly leads the creatures known as Ravagers back to a U.S. army base.
Sales for the film will launch at the virtual American film Market, which begins Nov. 9, and production is planned to start next spring. Marshall’s directing credits include “Dog Soldiers,” “The Descent,” “The Reckoning” and “Hellboy.” “The Lair” is produced by Marshall’s Scarlett Productions Ltd.
Marshall is producing the film under the banner of Scarlett Productions, the company he runs with his fiancee, actress Charlotte Kirk. Kirk is best known as the woman at the center of two Hollywood sex scandals, which led to the ouster of NBCUniversal Vice Chairman Ron Meyer and Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara. Kirk has been accused, with her finance, of seeking to extort millions in payments in exchange for their silence about Kirk’s sexual misconduct allegations. They deny the allegations. Kirk appeared most recently in Marshall’s horror film, “The Reckoning,” which she also co-wrote.
“If ‘The Reckoning’ was a gothic drama in testament to the power and resilience of women, then ‘The Lair’ is my true return to full-blooded horror and intense genre action in the style of ‘Dog Soldiers,’ ‘The Descent’ and ‘Doomsday,’” Marshall said in a statement. “I’m making something scary as hell, pulse-pounding and great fun. This is a crowd pleaser, an adrenaline pumping roller-coaster ride; spectacular and loud, inspired by classic genre movies like ‘Aliens,’ ‘Predator’ and ‘The Thing’ and their incredible use of practical creature FX. Featuring a new breed of screen terror, ‘The Lair’ will be a snarling, ravenous beast of a movie. I’m going to get my hands bloody making this one!”