Final Destination: Bloodlines directors are in talks to helm sci-fi drama The Traveler
At one point, Twisters director Lee Isaac Chung was attached to take the helm of a sci-fi drama called The Traveler for Paramount and Skydance – but Chung has had to drop out of the project due to conflicts with his work on the Ocean’s 11 prequel that’s in development at Warner Bros. So, Paramount and Skydance have turned to Final Destination: Bloodlines directors Adam B. Stein and Zach Lipovsky. Deadline reports that Stein and Lipovsky are in final negotiations to take over as the directors of The Traveler – and they’re eager to get to work on the project, because they have been pursuing it for six years!
Story
Although scripts for The Traveler have been making their way around Hollywood for years, it’s somehow said to be based on a novel by Joseph Eckert that won’t be published until June 9, 2026. Deadline’s sources described the project as an intimate family drama that exponentially develops into a vast science fiction odyssey. The novel explores the life of Scott Treder, a 47-year-old biology technician who begins experiencing involuntary jumps through time. Here’s the novel’s description: The Traveler is the story of a reluctant time-traveler and his son, and the bond between them that even millennia cannot break. An adventure full of heartbreak, hope, and futures beyond imagination. It’s a day like any other when Scott Treder first jumps forward through time. One moment, he’s on his way to work, fingers drumming the steering wheel. The next, he’s tumbling headlong down the road, his car gone, a dozen panicked voicemails from his wife waiting on his cell. 7:51am. Monday, April 13th. A blink of an eye. 7:52am. Tuesday, April 14th.
The first script was written by Austin Everett and was featured on the Blood List, Hit List, and the Black List. Justin Rhodes wrote the current draft.
Long Pursuit
Lipovsky told Deadline, “It’s very rare to read a script that you connect to so deeply. And honestly, I’ve been emailing our agents every six months for six years being like, ‘What’s the latest with that project?’ So the second it became available, we were in there the next day pitching our hearts out to be on that film. Because it was the one that got away six years ago.” Stein added that The Traveler has “everything we love in terms of an original sci-fi story that is very grounded, in terms of character, but has a very elevated theme of what it’s trying to say.“
Lipovsky and Stein have received a major career boost from Final Destination: Bloodlines – which makes sense, as the film turned out to be the best reviewed and the highest-grossing installment in the Final Destination franchise, earning over $315 million at the global box office. Since then, they have signed on to direct Long Lost for Universal and The Earthling for Sony. They have also written the screenplay for Gremlins 3 with original Gremlins writer Chris Columbus, who will be directing this new sequel, and are said to have wrapped production on a sequel to their sci-fi thriller Freaks.
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