Paramount is reportedly looking to find its own version of The Odyssey as the studio is preparing to create an original fantasy epic.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Evan Daugherty (Snow White and the Huntsman, Divergent, Tomb Raider) has sold his original screenplay, Tower Defense, to Paramount Primal - which is the low-budget division of the main studio.
The title should be familair to gamers as that is a subgenre where players build territories or defense towers and must protect their base from wave, after wave of enemies.
Movie fans should look to The Battle of Helm’s Deep from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers for an example of what Tower Defense could be about.
The project is described as "a medieval and supernatural fantasy twist on John Carpenter's classic 1976 siege thriller Assault on Precinct 13."
Given that premise, the film will likely see a mismatched group of defenders or rival armies, forced to defend and protect a castle or strategic fort from a night-long siege by your standard mythological forces like trolls, orcs, goblins, and perhaps even a lich or two.
Assault on Precinct 13 forced a cop and a convicted killer to arm up together just to stay alive. Swap out the police station for a medieval tower, and you’ve likley got an honorable captain handing broadswords and spellbooks to the cutthroats, bandits, and rogue sorcerers.
Founded in late 2025, you can think of Paramount Primal as the parent studio's home for high-concept genre movies that don't cost a fortune to make. It is essentially Paramount's answer to Universal's Blumhouse or Warner Bros.' New Line.
The "specialty" label means leans budgets but more creative freedom. Paramount Primal in particular is said to be focused on thrillers, horror, sci-fi, dark comedies, and action flicks that take enough creative risks to punch way above their weight class at the box office if they can find an audience.
In addition to Tower Defense, Paramount Primal is also developing Boys for Life; a dark R-rated comedy from director Tyler Falbo, and Sweet Spot; a high-concept thriller spec from writing duo Nic Curcio and Kirby Gladstein.
As The Odyssey continues its conquering of the box office with a staggering $1.29 billion global run and counting, Hollywood is officially obsessed with mythic epics again.
Studios are scrambling to greenlight grounded fantasy projects, with Legendary fast-tracking an adaptation of the Epic of Gilgamesh and Sony snapping up James Islington’s Hierarchy book series, which is a fantasy universe centered on The Fall of Troy.
Meanwhile, The Jim Henson Company is going the indie route to finance a live-action Beowulf movie starring Jeff Bridges (The Big Lebowski, Tron: Ares) and Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery).