‘The Omen’ Prequel ‘The First Omen’ Sets Arkasha Stevenson As Director For 20th Century Studios Movie
11.05.2022 - 01:11
/ deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: 20th Century Studios is in development on The First Omen, a prequel to the original 1976 Fox movie The Omen, with Legion and Briarpatch episodic director Arkasha Stevenson making her feature directorial debut.
Stevenson will also handle the rewrite, alongside writing partner Tim Smith. Smith is set to executive produce with Phantom Four producing. The original movie, a hit in its day which grossed over $60M at the domestic box office (unadjusted for inflation) and starred Gregory Peck, Lee Remick and Harvey Stephens, follows an American ambassador who believes his five-year-old son is the Antichrist.
The pic spawned two sequels, 1978’s Damien: Omen II ($26.5M domestic B.O.) and 1981’s The Final Conflict ($20.5M) as well as 2006 reboot which grossed $120M WW starring Liev Schreiber, Julia Stiles, and David Thewlis, as well as other follow-ups on the small screen.
Stevenson and Smith first worked together on the short film, Pineapple, which debuted at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, which Stevenson directed and Smith produced. They later sold the concept as a TV series to AMC, which they both wrote the pilot for. They are currently also working on Beautiful Monsters, an original project set up at Amazon; and both co-executive produced Channel Zero: Butcher’s Block for Syfy, on which Stevenson also directed every episode.
They continued their collaboration with Nick Antosca on Brand New Cherry Flavor at Netflix, with Stevenson directing the pilot and Smith as a co-producer. Stevenson has also directed episodes of FX’s Legion and USA’s Briarpatch. Prior to entertainment, Stevenson was a photojournalist for the LA Times, while Smith worked on Duck Butter and Searching as a production supervisor.
Stevenson and Smith