'Lift': Simon Kinberg & Matt Reeves Producing Film About A Heist On A Plane

Producers Simon Kinberg (X-Men: Days of Future Past) and Matt Reeves (The Batman) are preparing to "lift" off at Netflix.

The streamer has acquired a hot new spec script called Lift from writer Dan Kunka, winning a bidding war to acquire the title after it was sent to every studio earlier this week. The story involves a daring mid-air heist on an airplane, so I will absolutely be watching this. Get a few more details below.

Deadline reports that Netflix made a preemptive deal to purchase the rights to Lift, a screenplay written by Dan Kunka. His only other produced credit so far is the 2009 film 12 Rounds, an action movie that gave wrestler and future F9 actor John Cena the opportunity to gradually transition into a Hollywood career, but Lift sounds like it could be a lot of fun. Here's the logline:

A female master thief and her ex-boyfriend who works for the FBI team up to steal $100 million in gold bullion being transported on a 777 passenger flight from London to Zurich.

The outlet reports that there's a "strong part for a lead actress" here, and after reading that logline, I'd like to suggest a reunion of former Lost stars Evangeline Lilly and Josh Holloway for the cast of this movie. The chemistry they had as Kate Austen and James "Sawyer" Ford on that show was electric, and while Lilly has appeared in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy and the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Lost went off the air, Holloway has not been able to level up his career in the same way. They both seem like they could easily step into these archetypes and really make a meal out of a story like this, so make it happen, casting directors – just be sure to tell 'em /Film sent ya.

No director is attached to this film yet, but Kunka has been developing a pair of Universal projects – Space Race, and Crime of the Century – with 10 Cloverfield Lane director Dan Trachtenberg, who previously directed an episode of Black Mirror for Netflix. I'd love to see Trachtenberg behind the camera of a project like this; it could serve as a stepping stone toward even bigger projects, plus he already has experience telling a thrilling story in a confined setting.

Kingberg's Genre Pictures and Reeves' 6th & Idaho production companies will produce, with Genre's Audrey Chon and 6th & Idaho's Adam Kassan also on board as producers.