Fifth Season, Thunder Road Producing Will Dunn’s 2023 Black List Actioner ‘The Peasant’

EXCLUSIVE: Fifth Season and Thunder Road Pictures are teaming on The Peasant, a period action feature based on a screenplay by Ms. Marvel’s Will Dunn, which made the 2023 Black List.

The film follows a lone 14th-century shepherd who embarks on a rage-fueled campaign against a group of mercenary knights that ransacked his community, revealing himself to be more than he seems. Fifth Season will produce alongside Basil Iwanyk, Erica Lee and Charlie Morrison of Thunder Road, which is fresh off the rapturous debut of its SXSW Audience Award winner, Monkey Man, the action thriller marking the feature directorial debut of Dev Patel, which hits theaters via Uni this Friday.

In addition to writing on the Emmy-winning Ms. Marvel, Dunn has multiple original feature scripts in development and has worked on films for Disney, Sony, eOne, and Warner Bros. He was previously named to the Black List in 2015 for his drama The Fisherman, and has been tapped to adapt Ray Bradbury’s beloved 1972 fantasy novel The Halloween Tree. Dunn was selected to 20th Century Fox’s Feature Writer Program after graduating with a BA in Film Studies and Creative Writing from Stanford University.

Upcoming films on Fifth Season’s slate include Stephen Chbosky’s Nonnas, starring Vince Vaughn, on which we were first to report; Jan Komasa’s thriller Anniversary; Nick Rowland’s She Rides Shotgun, starring Taron Egerton; and Friendship, starring Paul Rudd, Tim Robinson, and Kate Mara, from Emmy-nominated writer-director Andrew DeYoung.

Most recently, Thunder Road has seen the release of John Wick: Chapter 4, prequel spinoff miniseries The Continental: From the World of John Wick, and John Woo’s holiday action flick Silent Night starring Joel Kinnaman. In addition to Monkey Man, upcoming projects include Bryan Fuller’s fantasy action horror Dust Bunny starring Mads Mikkelsen and Sigourney Weaver; David Mackenzie’s whistle-blower thriller Relay starring Riz Ahmed, Lily James, and Sam Worthington; and a sequel to Wind River directed by Kari Skogland. 

Dunn is represented by Tom Drumm of Think Tank Management, Verve, and McKuin, Frankel & Whitehead.