Netflix Picks Up Sci-Fi Spec Script ‘Parallel’ From ‘Source Code’ Writer Ben Ripley

Rideback, the production house run by Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich that was behind Netflix’s Oscar-nominated drama The Two Popes, will produce.

Ripley, who wrote the Jake Gyllenhaal time travel thriller Source Code, returns to similar genre ground with what is described as a sci-fi heist story that takes place across parallel universes. It involves a man and woman who traffic in high-end crimes in parallel universes suddenly meeting, a development that threatens their boss. Determined to outrun their fates, they fight across these different realities to find one where they can both survive and be together.

Rideback’s Nick Reynolds will exec produce.

In addition to Source Code, Ripley’s produced credits include Boychoir, a 2014 drama that starred Kathy Bates and Dustin Hoffman, as well as the 2017 remake of Flatliners that starred Elliot Page, Diego Luna and Nina Dobrev. He recently penned a sequel to Air Force One that is in development at Sony and Beacon Pictures.

Ripley is repped by Gersh, Brillstein Entertainment, and Stankevich Law.