Netflix and MRC are teaming up on Unabom, a new thriller based on the life of infamous domestic terrorist Ted Kaczynski.
Written by Sam Chalsen and Nelson Greaves and directed by Janus Metz (Andor), the film follows Ted Kaczynski (Jacob Tremblay) as he spirals from Harvard prodigy into the Unabomber, who carried out a nationwide bombing campaign between 1978 and 1995, killing three people and injuring 23.
“UNABOM is a story about a young man who feels increasingly disenfranchised by society and decides to take up violence as a means of revenge,” director Janus Metz told Tudum. “We crosscut between two timelines, roughly speaking: the making of the Unabomber and the capture of the Unabomber.”
The story dives into Kaczynski’s troubled past, including controversial psychological experiments conducted by Harvard professor Henry Murray (Russell Crowe), and how those events echo decades later during the FBI’s intense manhunt, led by agent Joanne Miller (Shailene Woodley). Annabelle Wallis also joins the cast as Christiana Morgan, Professor Murray’s academic partner and co-director of the Harvard Psychological Clinic.
This isn’t the first time the Unabomber’s story has been explored on screen. Netflix previously streamed Manhunt: Unabomber, a limited series starring Paul Bettany, Sam Worthington, and Chris Noth, which focused on the FBI’s longest and most expensive manhunt to capture Kaczynski. However, this new thriller seems to focus more on the psychological roots of Kaczynski’s radicalization, including the ideas behind his infamous manifesto, Industrial Society and Its Future.
Filming is currently underway, with a release date yet to be announced.
Sources: Variety, TUDUM
