Sony Pictures has tapped television writer Jill Blankenship to make her feature screenwriting debut with Castle, a new medieval action film based on an original concept developed by Chris Bremner’s production company, Unknown Quantity. The project remains in the early stages of development, with plot details being kept under wraps and no director or cast attached.
While little is known about the story itself, Blankenship’s hiring marks a notable career milestone. After establishing herself primarily in television, Castle will be her first produced feature film screenplay. It also places her among the relatively small group of writers who have been hired to develop large-scale studio action projects, a genre that has historically been dominated by male screenwriters.
Blankenship began her television career on The Last Ship before joining producer Greg Berlanti’s creative circle. She later wrote for Netflix’s Sweet Tooth and Marvel Studios’ Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again, while also developing projects for both Netflix and Amazon. Alongside filmmaker Ava DuVernay, she co-created and served as showrunner on The CW’s Naomi, the superhero drama based on the DC Comics character created by Brian Michael Bendis, David F. Walker, and *Jamal Campbell. Earlier in her career, she also contributed to Arrow, further building her résumé in genre storytelling.
Beyond her television work, Blankenship has already attracted attention in the feature space with Trapped, a female-led survival thriller that appeared on the 2024 Black List, the annual survey of Hollywood’s best unproduced screenplays. The project follows a woman trapped inside a narrow cave shaft that begins filling with water and is currently set up at Prologue Entertainment, though it has yet to secure a studio partner.
The project also continues Chris Bremner’s expanding partnership with Sony Pictures. Bremner wrote both Bad Boys for Life and Bad Boys: Ride or Die, two of the studio’s most successful recent action films, before launching Unknown Quantity under a writing and producing agreement with Sony. He will produce Castle alongside his producing partner Jeff Arkuss, who reportedly played a key role in bringing the project together. The company also has additional Sony projects in development, including Permission and You Up.
Castle also reflects a broader strategy within the film industry, where studios continue to invest in original action concepts alongside established franchises. Projects with historical or medieval settings have attracted renewed attention in recent years, offering opportunities to build new cinematic worlds beyond contemporary superhero and franchise storytelling. While details about Castle remain tightly guarded, the project appears to fit within Sony’s efforts to expand its slate with original action properties that have long-term franchise potential.
With Blankenship making the transition from acclaimed television series to feature filmmaking and Bremner continuing to expand his creative partnership with Sony, Castle represents one of the studio’s more intriguing original action projects currently in development. Although casting, a director and story details have yet to be revealed, the film continues to move through development with an experienced creative team already in place.
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