KPop Demon Hunters screenwriters Danya Jimenez and Hannah McMeachan are taking on a major new IP, signing on to write a script for Tim Burton’s reimagining of the classic.
Warner Bros. Pictures commissioned the writing duo to write the script for the film, and news broke in 2024. Burton was set to direct an updated version of the 1958 sci-fi horror film. The film tells the story of a wealthy heiress who grows into a giant after an encounter with an alien and takes revenge on her cheating husband. The “Beetlejuice” and “The Nightmare Before Christmas” filmmaker is also producing the film along with Andrew Mittman and Tommy Harper. Gillian Flynn wrote an earlier version of the script.
LuckyChap — the production company led by Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley and Josey McNamara — is producing and developing. Morgan Begg, the company’s director of development, is overseeing the project. Kai Dolbassian will serve as executive producer.
Jimenez and McMeachan were named one of Variety’s 10 Screenwriters to Watch in 2025 after writing the hit animated film KPop Demon Hunters for Sony Animation and Netflix with co-director Maggie Kang. The screenwriting duo met while attending Loyola Marymount University. He then took the script to Sundance Feature Lab, where fellow screenwriter Nicole Perlman approached him with the idea, which became “KPop Demon Hunter.”
“We started writing this piece in 2020 during the pandemic,” Jimenez told Variety last year. “At first, we thought, ‘This is going to be the biggest movie ever made,’ but as time went on, we thought, ‘Maybe it won’t get made. Who knows?'” Then this summer, when we were on set, a trailer fell and we were shocked. I have no expectations for this career. Just be grateful to get paid, and if something happens with it, that’s great. ”
Mr McMeechan added: “It was really the first time so many people were working together, and it felt like we were on track for production.”
Since the release of KPop Demon Hunters last summer, the film has become a global phenomenon, becoming the most-watched movie in Netflix history and its song breaking records on the Billboard 200. The film was nominated for three awards at this year’s Golden Gobs, including Best Animated Film, Best Original Song, and Motion Picture and Box Office.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Jimenez and McMeachan have joined the project.
Jimenez and McMeachan are repped by WME and Mosaic.
