James DeMonaco, the filmmaker behind The Purge franchise, is set to direct a new thriller called Vigilant for Miramax.
Vigilant is set around a pilot program that turns crime-fighting into a cash reward game, where everyday citizens are paid to capture wanted criminals. As the country moves closer to a vote on rolling the program out nationwide, the line between hero and hunter starts to blur, pushing the nation toward complete chaos. Sources close to the project say its tone and themes feel close to The Purge, which makes sense given DeMonaco’s involvement.
The film is based on an original screenplay by Tyler Stevens and Wade Stanton. James DeMonaco has since done a rewrite of the script along with Krystal and Alon Ziv, who also worked with him on The Purge TV series. Sebastien K. Lemercier, DeMonaco’s longtime producing partner, is producing the film.
Vigilant marks a shift for James DeMonaco outside his usual production circle. The Purge films were made through Blumhouse and Platinum Dunes, but this new project has no connection to either banner, aside from Lemercier staying on as producer. It’s a sign DeMonaco is branching out from the team that built his career alongside him.
The project actually came to Miramax through the studio’s CEO, Jonathan Glickman, who brought Vigilant with him from his previous company, Panoramic. This suggests the project has been in development for a while before finally finding its way to the screen with DeMonaco.
Miramax has been leaning more into genre and thriller titles under Glickman’s leadership, and Vigilant‘s premise fits that direction well. The idea of turning law enforcement into a public spectacle for profit isn’t new to the genre, with films like The Hunger Games and The Running Man exploring similar themes. DeMonaco is a natural fit here, given his history of using one simple, provocative idea to explore bigger questions about power, fear, and how far a society will go when right and wrong start to blur.
James DeMonaco is best known for creating The Purge universe, a franchise built around a single dark idea: one night a year, all crime, including murder, becomes legal in America. He wrote all five films in the series and directed the first three—The Purge (2013), The Purge: Anarchy (2014), and The Purge: Election Year (2016). Together, the films have earned close to $500 million worldwide on a combined budget of around $53 million, making it one of the most profitable horror franchises of the last decade. He also created the USA Network television adaptation of The Purge, which ran for two seasons.
Beyond The Purge, James DeMonaco’s career has taken a few different turns. He wrote the 1996 Robin Williams comedy Jack, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and later directed the 2005 remake of Assault on Precinct 13. He made his directorial debut with the drama Staten Island in 2009 and more recently directed This Is the Night, a coming-of-age story set in 1982. This shows that while DeMonaco is closely tied to The Purge, his interests as a filmmaker go beyond just one franchise.
James DeMonaco’s most recent directorial effort was The Home, a psychological horror film starring Pete Davidson that was released in 2025. He has also confirmed that a sixth Purge film is in the works, with a script he co-wrote with his wife already handed over to producer Jason Blum for review. The new installment will introduce strong female characters not previously seen on Purge Night.
With Vigilant, James DeMonaco continues to explore the kind of tense, socially charged thriller that made The Purge such a defining franchise for him. Given his track record of turning a single bold idea into a lasting, profitable series, Miramax will likely be hoping Vigilant can do something similar. No cast or release date has been announced yet, but with DeMonaco now attached to direct, more details are expected to follow soon.
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