Playwright Michael R. Jackson collaborating with Ari Aster on new A24 horror film

Ari Aster is working with A24 yet again on a new untitled horror feature. The Midsommar and Hereditary director will serve as a producer alongside Lars Knudsen under their Square Peg banner. But while Aster is producing the project, he isn’t writing it this time.

According to a Deadline exclusive, New York Drama Critics Circle and Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Michael R. Jackson sold an original pitch to write the planned horror film for A24. Jackson won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics award for the 2019 play A Strange Loop, which had its global debut at Playwrights Horizons in association with Page 73 Productions.

Right now, the project is still in the early stages. While Aster did not write the film, it’s possible he could direct it. There is no information in the article regarding who will direct yet or the plot details. All we know is that Jackson is writing, and Aster is producing alongside Knudsen.

Knudsen has worked with Aster and A24 previously. He produced Midsommar and Hereditary as well as the Robert Eggers film, The Witch.

As for Jackson, he is also busy developing a new musical titled White Girl in Danger, which is reportedly inspired by the ’90s era of Lifetime thrillers and classic daytime soap operas. In addition to his Pulitzer, he has received several other accolades like the Outer Critics Circle Award, an Obie Award, and many more.

This new film is in addition to Ari Aster’s other movie Disappointments Blvd.

Apart from the untitled horror film, Aster is also working on his third feature, Disappointments Blvd., which he will write and direct. Details are still being kept under wraps for this film, although we do know Joker actor Joaquin Phoenix has been tapped to star.

It doesn’t sound like his third outing as a director will be a horror film, but the story will follow “an intimate, decades-spanning portrait of one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time.”