Harness: Fear Street director Leigh Janiak to make 1980s-set thriller

Director Leigh Janiak and the Netflix streaming service brought us a really fun horror event back in the summer of 2021 with the Fear Street trilogy. Three films that were filmed back-to-back-to-back and then released over the course of three weeks – those films being Fear Street Part One: 1994, Fear Street Part Two: 1978, and Fear Street Part Three: 1666. It was an instant franchise, and had the potential to lead to many more films… but fans were left wondering what Janiak was up to when she wasn’t involved with the recent follow-up film Fear Street: Prom Queen. Now we know, as Variety has revealed that Janiak has set up a thriller project called Harness at the Amazon MGM label Orion, which is headed up by Alana Mayo.

Janiak wrote the 120 page script for Harness, which was featured on The Black List back in 2023. Described as “a thriller set in a gruesome sect of the sports betting world in the ‘80s,” the project has the following synopsis: In the violent world of underground horse racing, a wannabe female jockey and her trainer brother-in-law become entangled in an illicit relationship full of blood, sweat, and sex that pushes the limits of their bodies and the law.

Janiak will be directing and executive producing the film, while Elizabeth Banks produces through her company Brownstone Productions. Brownstone’s Max Handelman and Alison Small are also producing.

Casting on Harness is already underway, so it looks like this one is on the fast track production. I really enjoyed Leigh Janiak’s Fear Street, so I’m on board to see anything else she makes and look forward to seeing what she’s going to do with Harness. If you want to read a review of her Black List-featured screenplay, there’s one up on the Script Shadow website.

Janiak’s other credits include Honeymoon and episodes of Outcast, Scream: The TV Series, Panic, and The Staircase. Given the fact that she’s married to one of the Duffer Brothers, has a working relationship with Netflix, and counts The Goonies as one of her favorite movies, it’s kind of surprising that she never got in on the Stranger Things action.

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