MOVIE NEWS – Netflix is developing a new sci-fi action thriller titled Blur about a mother and daughter caught up in a story involving teleportation. Kirill Sokolov, director of Warner Bros.’ latest streaming success, is rewriting the movie with Ellen Shanman, while Shawn Levy’s 21 Laps is producing.
Netflix has spent much of the past decade trying to make original science-fiction features a recognizable part of its movie identity. That effort has delivered audience hits such as The Adam Project, alongside costly releases that disappeared from the conversation almost immediately.
One of the streamer’s most dependable partners in this area has been Shawn Levy’s 21 Laps. The company behind Stranger Things continues to expand its collection of high-concept movies and has now attached itself to Blur.
Teleportation will serve a mother-daughter story
Netflix is keeping the specifics deliberately secret and has not released a formal logline. The project is currently described only as a “mother-daughter story involving teleportation,” with Levy and Dan Levine serving as producers.
Hollywood has rarely made particularly convincing use of teleportation since Jumper stumbled with the concept in 2008. By grounding the device in a family relationship instead of treating it solely as a chase mechanic, Blur at least signals that its emotional structure may take priority.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the movie is based on an earlier screenplay by Christy Hall and Dan Casey. Sokolov and Ellen Shanman will work together on a new draft.
Kirill Sokolov broke through with a blood-soaked Moscow apartment
Sokolov first gained international attention with the 2019 black comedy Why Don’t You Just Die!, which transformed a single Moscow apartment into a violent battleground. Western audiences had already encountered the film through the Window to Europe festival in 2018, while its style openly drew from filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino.
He followed that movie with another Russian dark action comedy, No Looking Back, before reportedly relocating to the United States during the 2020s in search of Hollywood work. That decision paid off in a major way this spring.
His English-language debut, the Warner Bros. release They Will Kill You, became the new number-one streaming hit. Reviews were divided over the screenplay but far more consistent in their praise for Sokolov’s filmmaking.
A stronger story could finally match his action craft
Bloody Disgusting highlighted the director’s use of spaghetti westerns, anime, and samurai cinema to bring variety to the carnage. Rolling Stone argued that the movie operated as proof that Zazie Beetz could carry an above-the-title action vehicle.
The most common criticism concerned the thin story beneath the visual energy. RogerEbert.com described it as “a sporadically fun movie with obvious influences” that lacked sufficient stakes and personality.
A skeptical reading is that Netflix has hired a visually inventive filmmaker to elevate an existing script without guaranteeing that Blur will escape the platform’s crowded middle tier. Sokolov has nevertheless demonstrated more than once that he can stage carefully constructed action with limited resources, while his critics have repeatedly asked for stronger material.
A character-driven screenplay backed by an experienced company such as 21 Laps therefore looks like a sensible next step. In a Netflix science-fiction slate that can often feel anonymous, the combination of Blur’s premise and its director is at least one of the streamer’s more intriguing recent pairings.
Source: MovieWeb
