LaKeith Stanfield and Ben Mendelsohn are set to headline Molepeople, a horror feature that has been quietly assembling behind closed doors at Atomic Monster and Paramount's genre label Primal, multiple sources familiar with the project confirmed to Hollywood Buzz News. Rob Savage, who broke out with the Zoom-era shocker Host and has since become one of the more adventurous directors working in mainstream horror, is attached to direct from a screenplay that insiders describe as a claustrophobic descent thriller with an unusually bleak worldview.
The logline, kept under wraps until now, concerns one man's nightmarish descent into the abandoned tunnels beneath the streets of New York City, where a twisted society lurks. That is, in essence, the whole of the studio-approved synopsis - no character details beyond the principal roles have been released, and neither Atomic Monster nor Paramount Primal would comment for this story.
Cast and the Roles They'll Play
Anthony Ramos is on board as Jack, the film's central figure and, presumably, the man making the descent. Ben Mendelsohn will play Jimmy, a character whose function in the narrative remains undisclosed. Stanfield's role has not been formally announced; sources cautioned that dealmaking is still being finalized on his end, and the studio has yet to confirm his casting in any official capacity.
The pairing of Stanfield and Mendelsohn is an intriguing one. Stanfield, an Oscar nominee for Judas and the Black Messiah, has spent the past several years moving between prestige drama, auteur-driven genre work, and broad studio comedy, rarely repeating himself. Mendelsohn has become a fixture in both franchise cinema and darker independent material, and he brings a specific kind of worn, unpredictable menace that fits the premise almost too well. Ramos, meanwhile, has been steadily building a filmography that mixes musicals, action, and character work, and Molepeople marks a sharp turn into outright horror for him.
The combination suggests Primal is aiming for something more performance-forward than the average creature feature, even if the title inevitably conjures images of underground hordes.
Savage and the Atomic Monster Machine
Savage has been one of the more closely watched directors in the genre space since Host became a pandemic-era conversation piece, made remotely and for a minuscule budget. He followed it with Dashcam and then The Boogeyman, a Stephen King adaptation for 20th Century, which demonstrated he could operate within the studio system without sanding off his instincts for dread and escalation. Molepeople would represent another step up in scale while keeping him in the lane where he has been most effective: confined spaces, mounting panic, and the sense that help is not coming.
Atomic Monster, founded by James Wan, has been one of the most prolific producers of mainstream horror for over a decade, with credits spanning The Conjuring universe, M3GAN, and Malignant. The company's output has increasingly tilted toward high-concept premises with memorable hooks, and a subterranean society living beneath Manhattan fits that mold neatly. Paramount Primal, the studio's dedicated genre arm, has been ramping up its slate as well, and this project gives the label a director-driven piece with name actors attached.
Whether Wan himself will be involved beyond the Atomic Monster banner is unclear. The company typically attaches a deep bench of producers to its projects, and no official credits have been announced.
A Familiar Mythology, Reconfigured
The idea of a civilization living beneath New York is not new. It has circulated in folklore, urban legend, and fiction for well over a century, and it has been mined before - sometimes seriously, sometimes not - by filmmakers and novelists alike. What distinguishes this iteration, at least on paper, is the framing: the synopsis positions the story not as an ensemble adventure but as a single man's psychological unraveling, with the underground society presented as something twisted rather than merely strange.
That emphasis aligns with Savage's previous work, which tends to treat its monsters as extensions of the protagonist's deteriorating mental state rather than as standalone attractions. It also suggests the film may lean more toward sustained dread than creature-feature spectacle, though the title alone guarantees certain expectations from audiences.
No release date has been set, and it is not yet known when cameras will roll. Given that casting is still being locked and the studio has not formally announced the project, a 2027 or later release seems likely, though that is speculation at this stage. TMDb currently lists no rating for the film, which is expected for a title this early in development.
For now, Molepeople joins a growing list of underground-set horror projects in various stages of development across town - a reminder that the subgenre's appeal, like the tunnels themselves, runs deep and shows no sign of caving in.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
