Steve S. DeKnight, who served as the showrunner on the first season of Daredevil on Netflix, and was the creator, head writer, and showrunner for the popular Spartacus series on Starz, will make his feature directorial debut with Pacific Rim 2. Legendary Pictures has reportedly tapped DeKnight to take over the project from Guillermo del Toro, who co-wrote and directed the original, 2013 giant-robots-versus-monsters spectacle.
Deadline initially reported DeKnight’s involvement with the film, and the news was later confirmed by del Toro himself in a series of updates on Twitter.
Met w DeKnight and we are all so happy with our choice to take Pac Rim 2to where we know it can go!!
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) February 24, 2016
Now Pac Rim is a known property and we can expand big!
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) February 24, 2016
Originally scheduled to hit theaters in April 2017, the sequel to Pacific Rim was then pushed back to August of that same year before being removed from Universal Pictures’ release calendar entirely late last year. Despite the setbacks, Universal had indicated as recently as September that the studio was “committed to having Pacific Rim 2” and was getting elements in order “in its efforts to exceed the amazing experience of the first film.”
Along with his work on Daredevil and Spartacus, DeKnight also worked as a writer and producer on a long list of other notable television series, including Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Dollhouse series, as well as Smallville and Undressed. He departed Daredevil after the show’s acclaimed first season, and now it appears that we know why he left the series.
Although Pacific Rim had a disappointing box office in the U.S., earning just $101 million domestically, the film was a huge hit overseas. More than 75 percent of the film’s worldwide gross came from theaters outside the U.S., and the film ended its run with over $411 million worldwide. The original film starred Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, and Ron Perlman, and was based on a script by del Toro and Travis Beacham. The most recent draft of the sequel’s script was penned by Prometheus screenwriter Jon Spaihts.
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