Coming on top of a competitive situation, Sony’s Screen Gems has landed Mime, a supernatural horror project that has John David Washington attached to star.

Nikyatu Jusu, who made her feature directorial debut with the Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Nanny, will direct.

Plot details are being kept behind an invisible wall. Stephen Herman wrote the spec screenplay, which is based on his original idea.

Mime does come with a bevy of producers, including Matt Tolmach, The Black Phone filmmaker Scott Derrickson via his Crooked Highway banner and Camila Grove. Washington will also produce.

The WME-repped Washington starred in Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman, his breakout, and then went on to star in films such as Christopher Nolan’s Tenet and Gareth Edwards’ sci-fi thriller The Creator. He last appeared in the 2024 drama The Piano Lesson.

Jusu’s Nanny was a psychological horror that starred Anna Diop as am immigrant nanny whose life in America becomes derailed by visions. Amazon and Blumhouse teamed up to acquire it. Jusu is repped by CAA, Gaby Mena and Natalia Williams at M88 and Granderson Des Rochers.

Marvel‘s new X-Men team is taking shape.

Heartstopper and Warfare actor Kit Connor is circling the role of Scott Summers, a.k.a. Cyclops, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter (with Deadline first reporting the news).

Marvel is assembling a new team of actors for to play mutants in its upcoming X-Men reboot from director Jake Schreier (Thunderbolts).

We’ve previously reported that Samara Weaving (Ready or Not 2: Here I Come) has been eyed for the role of Emma Frost in the film.

As revealed in Spider-Man: Brand New Day (spoiler alert), Sadie Sink has joined the MCU as Jean Grey and will presumably be in the film as well.

Several other actors have hinted they’d be down for roles in the project. Obsession breakout Inde Navarrette said she met with Schreier and expressed interest in playing Mystique.

Cyclops has been a staple of the X-Men films, having been played by James Marsden in the original X-Men trilogy and 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past. Tye Sheridan played the role in several X-Men projects in the 2010s.

Marsden is reprising the character in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, which will also feature several other legacy X-Men actors, such as Patrick Stewart (Professor X) and Ian McKellen (Magneto).

Studio representatives have had no comment on X-Men casting. Disney has been slowly ramping up to an X-Men movie since it acquired 20th Century Fox’s entertainment assets in 2019, with mutant characters appearing in 2024’s hit Deadpool & Wolverine.

Borys Kit contributed to this report.

The Writers Guild Foundation is celebrating its 60^th anniversary in space.

The organization has put together a live reading of “The Man Trap,” the first-ever episode of Star Trek that aired. Noah Wyle, Katherine LaNasa, Fiona Dourif, Taylor Dearden, Shabana Azeez and Ayesha Harris from the HBO Max’s The Pitt will help explore strange new worlds at the event, which is set for August 30 at 7 p.m. at the Lodge Room in Highland Park

Tickets are available here and a livestream is available here.

Wyle will perform the role of Captain James T. Kirk.

Why Star Trek? The show premiered on NBC in 1966, the same year the WGF was created. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry also served as a member of the foundation’s board in its early years.

The organization will take the script from the shelves of its Shavelson-Webb Library and bring it to life as part of its “Retro Reads” strand. The WGF library holds more than 50,000 scripts, which are open to everyone.

Proceeds from the event will support the foundation and its public programs, including the library, Writers Access programs, Veterans Writing Project and public education events.

“Retro Reads” is produced by Ben Blacker and Heath Corson. The show will feature live scoring by Philip Krohnengold. The livestream is being produced by Drew Spears’ DSPStudioLA and distributed by Third Best Comedy.