EXCLUSIVE: After an intense bidding war after with multiple parties interested, Skydance has won the next project —Doppelgänger— from Searching and Run filmmaker Aneesh Chaganty with his Search Party team and Ryan Coogler‘s Proximity Media to produce.
While the story is being kept secret we hear it’s an original take on the spy thriller, with the potential to be a franchise-starter. We’re told there are two very meaty lead roles for an actor and actress. The team secured a seven-figure deal, which is notable in the marketplace since there aren’t any cast attachments yet.
Ammar Mohamed
Chaganty and Dan Frey wrote with the former set to helm. Doppelgänger is produced by Natalie Qasabian and Aneesh for Search Party and Sev Ohanian, Ryan Coogler and Zinzi Coogler for Proximity Media.
Doppelgänger reps the third movie from writer-director Chaganty. He burst onto the scene with Sundance hit, Searching, (which minted $75.4M worldwide against a sub $1 million budget) and followed-up with Run. That movie was originally dated for theaters on Mother’s Day 2020, but COVID pushed it to streaming, where it then debuted as the most watched original movie in Hulu history at the time. His most recent film, Missing, which he co-wrote and produced alongside his longtime Search Party partners Sev Ohanian and Natalie Qasabian, was released in 2023.
Coogler and Zinzi Coogler of Proximity Media, along with Ohanian, recently had the period vampire hit Sinners which has accumulated over $350M around the world to date. Since Proximity’s first film, 2021’s Judas and the Black Messiah, which was nominated for six Academy Awards, winning two; the company has produced a wide variety of projects, notably including Michael B. Jordan’s directorial debut Creed III which grossed over $276M globally.
Frey is a novelist and screenwriter whose credits include The Rise of Red, and sequel Wicked Wonderland. He has been developing his novel The Future Is Yours also with Search Party and Proximity Media with Chaganty attached to direct. Frey is represented by TFC Management and Myman Greenspan.
Chaganty is repped by CAA, entertainment 360 & attorney Arine Harapeti. Proximity Media is repped by WME and Cohen Gardner, Esq..
