Netflix Lands Spec ‘Apex’ From Jeremy Robbins With Chernin Entertainment And Ian Bryce Producing

EXCLUSIVE: While high-profile packages have been flourishing following the ends of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, the spec market also looks to have some pop to it as sources tell Deadline that Netflix has landed the female-driven genre thriller Apex from scribe Jeremy Robbins. Ian Bryce and Chernin Entertainment will produce. Netflix declined comment.

The script is described as Free Solo meets Silence of the Lambs and follows a rock climber who finds herself being hunted in the wild.

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The sale comes at an interesting time in a post-strike landscape where studios see a need for new original stories to fill their development slates, and the spec and packaging markets have reaped the rewards. Prior to the WGA strike in May, the market was not as robust as reps cautioned their clients about how hard it is to sell a script with talent attached, let alone a spec on its own. But in recent months that outlook as changed, with the Apex sale the most recent example.

Robbins most recently staffed as a producer on The Spiderwick Chronicles for Apple, Paramount TV and director Barry Sonnenfeld. Before that, he wrote for two seasons on The Purge for Blumhouse, UCP and USA Network, and was on set in New Orleans to handle production rewrites on Season 1. He recently completed a page-one rewrite for New Regency on its feature Take Back the Night, which is out to directors now. Robbins is also currently developing a TV series with James DeMonaco, as well as a project with Adam McKay and Hyperobject Industries.

He is repped by Grandview, UTA and attorney Michael Schenkman.

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