David Gordon Green Helming Cambridge Analytica Film From AVENGERS Writers

Everyone's expecting David Gordon Green to direct a sequel to Halloween as his next project (which, if it's titled Halloween 2, will only further add to that series' bizarre titling continuity). But afterwards, according to Deadline, he'll direct something far more high-minded: a film about the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal.

If that phrase doesn't ring any bells: Cambridge Analytica was the company hired by the Trump and Brexit campaigns to work on social media strategy, and which used illegally-attained data to do so. The saga combines personal privacy issues with those of social media manipulation and targeted advertising, and it's had massive, worldwide impact on the political landscape. Everybody has been touched by this scandal.

The film, written by Avengers screenwriters Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely and co-produced by Avengers directors Joe & Anthony Russo, will centre on data consultant Christopher Wylie. Wylie was one of the key figures involved in the scandal, which also roped in figures like Trump strategist Steve Bannon and billionaire Robert Mercer. He was also a significant figure in the unravelling of the story, thanks to his testimony to The Guardian and government agencies, and that journey supposedly forms the backbone of the movie.

Currently lacking a title, the movie will land in 2020, when the world will be continuing to suffer the consequences of the Cambridge Analytica scandal and its subsequent radicalisation of the political landscape. It'll be like The Social Network, but meaner, I guess. Or more aptly, given the director: like Halloween, but with data instead of knives.

(Header image by Gage Skidmore, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.)