I watched the trade copy hit my feed and felt the room tilt for a second. You know the feeling when a director who rewrote the rules of a franchise quietly moves to the next page. I want to tell you what that move means before the headlines do.
Dan Trachtenberg — the filmmaker who gave Predator new life with Prey, and who’s been courting both genre fans and studio attention with Badlands and Killer of Killers — is taking another sharp turn. Deadline reports he’s directing an original idea inspired by Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, an untitled project said to push the fairy tale in “an entirely new direction” with Trachtenberg’s sensibility. The film is in early development at Disney and is explicitly not connected to the Maleficent series.
On sets, conversations begin with a single line — Trachtenberg is stretching from predator stalking to thorned castles
He has a family-friendly animated horror comedy, Freddy the 13th, slated for 2028, and he’s also under a first-look deal with Paramount that keeps his name in multiple studio inboxes. You should register two things: he isn’t repeating the same formula, and studios trust him to take familiar IP and make it feel dangerous again. I’ve seen that rare trust open doors; it’s the same confidence that let Prey land as both a critical and commercial win.
What is Dan Trachtenberg working on next?
Trachtenberg has at least three projects lined up: the family-friendly animated horror Freddy the 13th (2028), an untitled Disney film inspired by Sleeping Beauty, and a “top-secret” project in pre-production at Paramount. He co-wrote the Sleeping Beauty story with Rayna McClendon, while Alex Anfanger and Dan Schimpf are scripting. Deadline broke the news; io9 and other outlets followed, which is how these studio moves get oxygen.
At trade desks, a single email can change an open slot — why Disney’s call matters
Disney didn’t just greenlight a riff on a classic; it handed Trachtenberg a sandbox with enormous expectations. Disney’s brand power and Paramount’s first-look deal create two different kinds of pressure: Disney wants a reimagining that resonates with legacy fans and new ones, while Paramount’s deal signals ongoing commercial trust. The creative team’s names matter here — Rayna McClendon brings fresh narrative voice, while Anfanger and Schimpf will shape tone and beats — and that mix suggests the film will favor story-first impulses over franchise checklists.
Is Trachtenberg’s Sleeping Beauty connected to Maleficent?
No. The project is separate from the Maleficent strand. That separation frees Trachtenberg to retool the tale rather than shoehorn it into an existing live-action throughline. Expect a new mythic grammar rather than a sequel or sidequel to Angelina Jolie’s reinterpretation.
At festival bar counters, you overhear predictions — what the creative team signals about tone
Trachtenberg tends to approach genre like a locksmith, picking locks on old stories to let unexpected things slip out. That method suggests the film will lean into uncanny beats — not just spectacle. Alex Anfanger and Dan Schimpf have comedy and subversive instincts; pair that with Trachtenberg’s hunger for tension and you get tonal friction: moments meant to make you laugh, then glance over your shoulder.
Studios and trade outlets are the practical gauges here. Deadline’s report is the signal; Disney’s involvement is the amplifier; Paramount’s ongoing relationship with Trachtenberg is the safety net that keeps him experimental. If you follow production movement on Variety, Deadline, and The Hollywood Reporter, you’ll see how quickly a project gathers momentum or stalls. I’ll be watching their dispatches the way a reader watches opening credits.
The press cycle will throw predictions at you — release windows, casting whispers, and whether the film leans darker or lighter than the animated original. Trachtenberg’s recent choices suggest he’ll play with tone, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the end product felt like a thunderclap in a nursery. Are you ready to argue about whether a fairy tale can be remade into a thriller?