JOHN WICK Meets Bigfoot in Brutal Revenge Horror Movie WILDMAN

Bigfoot is done hiding in the woods. Now he’s out for blood. Badlands has picked up Wildman, a horror-action spec script that takes the relentless revenge formula of John Wick and hands it to one seriously pissed-off Sasquatch.

The script comes from emerging writer Jacob Rainer, and its wonderfully simple premise should immediately get genre fans interested: When his little brother is killed by hunters, Bigfoot goes on a quest to retrieve the body while killing everyone responsible along the way.

So, yeah. it’s a Bigfoot revenge movie. Sometimes you really don’t need much more than that.

Badlands is the genre banner run by Scott Strauss and backed by John Wick franchise producers Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee of Thunder Road. With the company picking up Wildman, the whole “John Wick but with Bigfoot” comparison becomes even more fitting.

The deal also makes for a pretty cool first break for Rainer, a Texas native whose fascination with Bigfoot inspired him to write the screenplay and enter it in the Blood and Ink horror screenplay contest hosted by Scriptshadow.net.

Scriptshadow founder Carson Reeves highlighted Wildman as one of the scripts that caught his attention during the competition. That exposure eventually put the screenplay on the radar of Jake Wagner at Alibi Entertainment, who sought Rainer out.

Now Rainer has landed his first screenwriting deal, while Reeves has joined the project as an executive producer. Reeves also recently played a part in bringing attention to the massive 190-page spec Ember Knight.

Badlands is also preparing to release its first feature, Crawlers. Directed by Angel Hernandez Gomez and starring Matilda Lutz, Crawlers centers on a spider invasion and is scheduled to hit U.S. theaters on October 16 through Roadside Attractions and Saban Films.

It’s kinda funny. For decades, Hollywood action pitches were constantly described as being a twist on Die Hard. Now John Wick has become the newer shorthand for a particular kind of unstoppable revenge story.

A grieving Bigfoot hunting down the people who murdered his brother could be ridiculously awesome awesome. If Badlands can deliver on the primal revenge-movie promise of that premise, Wildman could be one hell of a fun creature feature.