EXCLUSIVE: The package market has been booming over the past couple weeks and here is another one that looks to have found its new home. Sources tell Deadline that Apple Original Films is in talks to land the untitled UFO package that has Joseph Kosinski directing and Jerry Bruckheimer producing. Zach Baylin penned the script, which is akin to a UFO disclosure-themed take on All the President’s Men, the classic 1976 political thriller from Alan J. Pakula.
The package hit the market last week with several bids coming in and sources say a big reason Apple ended up winning the bid was the strong relationship that grew out of the studio’s F1 movie that Kosinski directed and Bruckheimer produced. Insiders are very high on that film, which will bow in June, and were eager to work again after the film finished production.
David Grusch, a former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer and Pentagon whistleblower who gained attention in 2023 for his claims about the U.S. government’s involvement in unidentified aerial phenomena research, will executive produce and serve as a consultant on the UFO project.
Once a niche, easy-to-dismiss topic, UAPs (formerly known as UFOs) have moved from the fringes of conspiracy theories into mainstream discussion in recent years, largely due to declassified military footage and government acknowledgment. Part of this shift in perception came with 2017 reporting from the New York Times that revealed the existence of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, a group at the Pentagon tasked with investigating UAPs.
In subsequent years, the U.S. Department of Defense has confirmed the authenticity of several declassified Navy videos showing fast-moving objects that pilots could not identify. Congressional hearings in 2022 and 2023 further legitimized the topic, with intelligence officials emphasizing national security concerns. Grusch himself spoke out in 2023, asserting that the U.S. government had been secretly recovering and studying non-human craft, which of course sparked even more public interest.
Baylin penned the script to the Oscar-winning drama King Richard.
Best known for directing Top Gun: Maverick, the Tom Cruise sequel decades in the making that scored six Oscar nominations and made more than $1.4 billion globally, Kosinski has more recently gotten behind the camera on Brad Pitt starrer F1, which zooms into theaters June 27.
Other recent projects for Bruckheimer include Sony’s hit Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Young Woman and the Sea and Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F for Disney and Netflix, respectively.
Kosinski and Bruckheimer are repped by CAAm with Kosinski also repped by Untitled Entertainment. Baylin is repped by CAA and Brillstein Entertainment Partners,
