John David Washington and Nikyatu Jusu Team for Screen Gems Supernatural Horror 'Mime,' Targeting NYC Shoot in Spring 2027

A competitive bidding war at Sony's Screen Gems has landed one of the more intriguing horror packages to surface in recent memory. Mime, a supernatural horror feature set inside a New York City apartment complex during a heat wave blackout, is now in development at Screen Gems with John David Washington attached to star and Nikyatu Jusu set to direct. The project is targeting a spring 2027 production start in New York, which puts crew with an eye on high-profile genre work in a strong position to get on the radar early.

Jusu is the director every horror producer wants right now, and for good reason. Her debut feature Nanny made history at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, becoming the first horror film ever to win the Grand Jury Prize in the dramatic competition. That film, a deeply atmospheric and psychologically layered story rooted in the Black immigrant experience, immediately announced Jusu as a filmmaker with a singular voice and an exceptional command of dread and visual storytelling. Mime represents her second feature and her first studio-backed project, a meaningful step up in scale that suggests a production with real resources behind it. The screenplay comes from Stephen Herman, who previously wrote the psychological horror film Black Box, produced under the Blumhouse Productions banner for Amazon Prime Video. Herman's background in contained, high-concept horror aligns well with the premise here: a single apartment building, a blackout, an unseen threat. It is a setup that rewards discipline and craft, both of which Jusu has already demonstrated in abundance.

Washington steps into the dual role of star and producer here, continuing a pattern of creative involvement he has built since breaking out in BlacKkKlansman and later leading Christopher Nolan's Tenet. He has consistently sought projects with distinctive directors and strong material, and his attachment to Mime as a producer alongside Camila Grove signals genuine investment in the film's development rather than a simple talent deal. The other producing forces are equally notable. Matt Tolmach, who packaged the project and brought it to Screen Gems, has a long track record of shepherding commercial studio films including the Spider-Man franchise at Sony. Scott Derrickson, producing through his Crooked Highway banner, brings a particularly relevant pedigree: he directed Sinister, Doctor Strange, and The Black Phone, making him one of the most commercially and critically successful horror filmmakers working in the studio system today. Crooked Highway has a first-look arrangement with Screen Gems, which explains how this package found its home.

Screen Gems, the Sony Pictures label responsible for the Resident Evil franchise, the Insidious series spinoffs, and a consistent output of commercially minded genre fare, won Mime after a bidding war that reportedly included Amazon MGM Studios and Searchlight Pictures. That level of competition for a contained horror concept speaks to the strength of the package and the current marketplace appetite for elevated genre projects with recognizable talent. Screen Gems operates firmly in the mid-to-upper tier of studio horror, typically releasing films with production budgets in the range that supports strong below-the-line hiring and a proper department head roster, without ballooning into tentpole territory. For crew, that is a comfortable and productive tier to work in.

New York City is the confirmed filming location, which tracks with the material. A story set entirely within a Manhattan or outer-borough apartment complex during a sweltering blackout practically demands authentic location shooting to generate the claustrophobia and heat the premise requires. New York has a robust and experienced local crew base across all departments, and productions of this scale typically hire the majority of their below-the-line crew locally. The city's incentive program, the Empire State Film Production Credit, offers a 25 percent tax credit on qualified production expenditures, and Screen Gems has a history of leveraging New York incentives for projects with urban settings. Stage space in the city (Kaufman Astoria, Steiner Studios in Brooklyn, and others) could support controlled interior work on the apartment complex, while practical location shooting in actual residential buildings would lend the film the texture and grit the story demands. Given the contained, single-location nature of the premise, a strong art department and production design team will be essential to making the space feel fully realized and visually dynamic across an entire shoot.

With a spring 2027 start in the crosshairs, Mime is still comfortably in early development. No cameras-up date has been officially locked, and department heads are not yet being staffed in any formal sense. That said, productions of this caliber with this level of producer involvement and a clear greenlight path tend to accelerate quickly once a script is locked and financing is confirmed. Crew working in supernatural horror, especially those with experience on contained, tension-driven productions in New York, should treat this as a listing worth watching closely. The creative team here, from Jusu's directorial vision to Derrickson's genre instincts to Washington's star power, points to a production that will attract serious talent across every department. The full listing for Mime, including any updated crew contacts, production office information, and scheduling developments as they become available, can be found on ProductionList.com. Bookmark it now and check back as the project moves closer to its production window.

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