Chadwick looks to inherit 'Property'

Material's thriller set in London

By ADAM DAWTREY

Material Entertainment, the U.K.-based production joint venture between New Line Cinema and Entertainment Film Distributors, is in advanced talks with Justin Chadwick to direct “The Property,” a contemporary London thriller.

Chadwick made his feature helming debut with “The Other Boleyn Girl” for Sony and Focus, in release in the U.S. and Spain.

“The Property,” which Justin Trefgarneis rewriting from Clive Dawson’s original script, is the story of a young professional couple who acquire their dream home by underhanded means, only for the previous owner to return, looking for revenge.

Material topper Robert Jones will produce with Claire Moorsom of Seymour Films. Margaret Matheson is exec producer.

“We’ve been searching for a London-based thriller for some time,” Jones said. “ ’The Property’ has intriguing, morally ambiguous characters and is a gripping story about the lengths supposedly decent people will go to get what they want, and how their decency disintegrates when the consequences are far worse than they could ever imagine.”

Material had a U.K. hit last fall with its debut production, “Run, Fat Boy, Run,” which will be released by Picturehouse in the U.S. later this month.

This is the second project to be announced by Material in the past week, since the news broke that New Line will be absorbed into Warners. It has yet to be revealed how that decision will affect Material.