Melissa Barrera has reportedly landed a monster role…
The 32-year-old Mexican actress has been cast in Radio Silence’s Untitled Monster Thriller at Universal.
Radio Silence’s Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett, who directed the recent Scream films that Barrera has starred in, will helm the project with Scream producer Chad Villella serving as producer alongside William Sherak, Paul Neinstein and James Vanderbilt at Project X Entertainment.
The script was written by Stephen Shields, with revisions by Guy Busick.
Universal Monster films are rooted in the horror genre, with no restrictions on budget, rating or genre. They are not part of a shared interconnected universe, which allows each film to stand on its own. This new direction is filmmaker-driven, inviting innovative filmmakers with original, bold ideas for these characters to develop the stories and pitch them.
Radio Silence has been loosely developing the project since last year following the success of their first Scream pic, but given the success of that film, Paramount moved fast to get Scream VI up and running. While they began meeting with other talent, it became evident pretty quickly that Barrera was the perfect fit for the role following two successful shoots with the rising star and offered her the part.
Barrera is in theaters as the lead of Scream VI, which is the highest-grossing film of the franchise. She next will be seen this spring in the modern musical reimagining of Carmen, opposite Paul Mescal for Sony Pictures Classics.
Also upcoming for Barrera is God’s Country, directed by Egor Abramenko as his American directorial debut; Your Monster from Merman Productions; and The Collaboration written by four-time Oscar nominee Anthony McCarten (Bohemian Rhapsody), based off the acclaimed play.
She most recently was seen in the independent film All the World Is Sleeping as well as Netflix’s global hit Keep Breathing and STX’s supernatural thriller Bed Rest, which was also Barrera’s producorial debut.