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He wowed us in 2011 with "Take Shelter," and has scored strong reviews for his new film "Mud" this week at Sundance.

Now, filmmaker Jeff Nichols says he's currently working on two scripts, one of which is for a new film called "Midnight Special". He said in an interview the other day:

"I won’t talk too much about it now, other than to say I kind of want to make a 1980s John Carpenter movie. If I had to choose one of those it would be 'Starman.'"

It’s interesting because I’m doing the same thing I did in the summer of 2008 where I’m writing two scripts at once. 'Midnight Special' is going to be a genre film put through whatever bizarre filter is me. Them, I’m also writing this other movie based on a documentary that will hopefully be austere, quiet, sad, and beautiful."

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UPDATE: Took awhile, but I’ve gotten clarity on this Jeff Nichols Warner Bros project, and it was worth the wait. Michael Shannon, the Boardwalk Empire star who turned in a powerhouse performance in Nichols’ Take Shelter and appeared more recently in Mud, will star in Midnight Special, which Nichols wrote and will direct at Warners. Described to me as a contemporary science fiction chase film, the pic will be produced by Sarah Green and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, with Glen Basner and Christos V. Konstantakopoulos the exec producers. Shannon just played a hitman in The Iceman, and he plays General Zod in the Superman reboot Man Of Steel, so he is absolutely on the Warner Bros radar.

BREAKING, Earlier, 2:21 pm PT: After getting raves for his latest film Mud, Jeff Nichols is stepping up to the big league. Warner Bros chief Jeff Robinov just acquired Nichols’ next film, and it will begin production in February. Nichols, who also helmed the Michael Shannon-starrer Take Shelter, is carving an intriguing path to the studio ranks. He’s repped by CAA, Mosaic and Sean Marks, with Shannon repped by CAA and Wetzel Entertainment.

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http://www.ew.com/sites/default/file...?itok=eNNaRK_H

Texas-based writer-director Jeff Nichols (Mud) isn’t exactly forthcoming with details about Midnight Special, his 2016 sci-fi drama starring Michael Shannon and Kirsten Dunst as parents to a young boy (St. Vincent’s Jaeden Lieberher). The kid appearrs normal enough — but if you look closely at the exclusive photo above, note the swimming goggles around his neck.

“The son happens to have unique gifts,” Nichols, 36, says. “It’s a weird word to use, but his gifts are, um, supernatural.”

Nichols won’t confirm any further details, but those blue goggles would seem to suggest that the boy’s supernatual powers have something to do with his eyes. He even has Joel Edgerton (Black Mass), guarding his family with a pump-action shotgun.

The filmmaker’s reluctance to talk about his film’s plot is part of a Spielbergian effort to shroud Midnight Special (out March 18) in a veil of secrecy similar to the great genre movies of his youth. “Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., Starman, they were my inspirations — very propulsive journeys that work when you can’t predict what’s going to happen next,” Nichols says. “This is my sci-fi chase film.”

Among those doing the chasing is a religious kook (Sam Shepard) and a government agent played by Star Wars chief bad guy, Adam Driver. However, says Nichols, Driver is not the film’s villain. “It’ll be nice by March to see him as a decent guy again.”

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