Apple Original Films Wins Auction For ‘The Corsair Code;’ Chris Hemsworth To Star & Jonathan Tropper Adapting His Sci-Fi Short Story

EXCLUSIVE: Apple Original Films has won a spirited auction to land The Corsair Code, an original feature film set to star Chris Hemsworth. The film is based on a short story by Jonathan Tropper, which he brought to Hemsworth and his producing partner Ben Grayson.

Hemsworth and Grayson will produce through their Wild State shingle, and Apple Studios will serve as the studio. Tropper will write the screenplay and produce through his shingle Tropper Ink. 

The Corsair Code is described as a high-octane, sci-fi mystery adventure, but they are keeping plot specifics under wraps. Tropper is already in business with an overall TV deal at Apple+ where he created and is the showrunner of Your Friends and Neighbors, which is in production, with Mad Men’s Jon Hamm the EP and star of the series. Tropper has two films heading into production this fall: The Wrecking Crew with Angel Manuel Soto directing Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista, and he rewrote Matchbox for Mattel Films with Extraction helmer Sam Hargrave directing. And, oh yeah, Tropper is going to write the Star Wars film that Deadpool & Wolverine’s Shawn Levy will direct. Novelist/screenwriter Tropper scripted the Levy-directed Ryan Reynolds-starrer The Adam Project, and scripted the Levy-directed This Is Where I Leave You with Jason Bateman and Tina Fey. He also wrote Kodachrome, which starred Ed Harris, Jason Sudeikis and Elizabeth Olsen, and was EP and showrunner for the second and third seasons of Apple TV+’s See, which starred Momoa. Tropper also was co-creator and EP of Banshee.

Hemsworth, who is coming off the George Miller-directed Furiosa and next stars in Transformers One, has been building out Wild State with Grayson. Wild State is currently in production on Limitless 2 with Aronofsky’s Protozoa and Nutopia; producing the Bart Layton helmed Crime 101 with Working Title, starring Hemsworth; and are developing Extraction 3 with the Russos’ AGBO.

Upcoming for Apple is the Doug Liman-directed The Instigators with Matt Damon and Casey Affleck, the Jon Watts-directed George Clooney & Brad Pitt-starrer Wolfs, the Steve McQueen-directed Blitz, and for Formula One-set drama F1 with Pitt by director Joseph Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

Hemsworth is repped by CAA and Greenburg Glusker; Tropper is represented by CAA, Kaplan/Perrone and attorney Fred Toczek; and Grayson is repped by CAA and Hirsch Wallerstein Hayum.