Netflix is developing Helo, a new police helicopter action thriller, with Narcos and Griselda director Andrés Baiz attached to helm the film. Edward Berger, the filmmaker behind All Quiet on the Western Front and Conclave, is producing through his Nine Hours banner alongside creative partner Luke Rivett.
Plot details for Helo are being kept tightly under wraps, but the project has been described as Netflix’s attempt to revive and reinvent a fairly niche genre: the high-octane, helicopter-centered action thriller, a subgenre that has not seen a major big-screen entry in years.
Some reports have pitched the film’s tone as landing somewhere between End of Watch and Top Gun, with 1983’s helicopter-cop classic Blue Thunder also floated as a likely touchstone for the project’s inspiration. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Edward Berger and Luke Rivett originally brought the concept to Netflix executives, who then enlisted screenwriter Patrick Aison to develop it into a full script, with insiders describing his take on the material as “fresh and distinct.”
Aison is best known for his recent work reviving the Predator franchise, having written both Prey and this year’s Predator: Badlands, giving him a proven track record of finding new angles on established genre formulas, exactly the kind of skill set Netflix is reportedly counting on for Helo.
Andrés Baiz is already a well-established name at Netflix. Born in Cali, Colombia, and trained at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, he directed many of the key episodes across Narcos and Narcos: Mexico, helmed the entirety of Griselda, the Sofía Vergara-led miniseries about drug lord Griselda Blanco, and also directed episodes of the streamer’s adaptation of The Sandman.
He recently wrapped production on Fight for 84, a Jamie Foxx-led sports drama about the 1984 U.S. Olympic boxing team, which Netflix executives reportedly see as a strong contender for 2027. That confidence in his work is said to be exactly why the streamer moved quickly to get him attached to another feature so soon after wrapping that project.
Edward Berger, meanwhile, brings his own strong current standing at the studio, having earned major awards attention for All Quiet on the Western Front and Conclave. He is also currently attached to direct the sequel to World War Z, adding Helo to an increasingly packed slate of high-profile genre and awards-caliber projects.
Andrés Baiz is represented by CAA, Management 360 and Hansen Jacobson.
With a genre-savvy screenwriter, a director with a strong track record at the streamer and a producer coming off some of the past decade’s most acclaimed war and thriller films, Helo is shaping up to be one of Netflix’s more ambitious original action bets, even with the film’s actual story still firmly under wraps. No release date or start of production has been announced yet.