It was previously reported that director Edgar Wright had recruited Academy Award winner Emma Stone for his next project, the twisted kidnapping thriller The Chain. First reported in an article by The Direct, it was rumored that Stone would lead The Chain as a mother thrown into a warped kidnapping plot to protect her own child. However, that is apparently not the case, as sources connected with the project have debunked the the report as inaccurate.

Edgar Wright is best known for “The Cornetto Trilogy,” Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End, as well as Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Baby Driver, and will helm The Chain. An adaptation of the 2019 novel of the same name by Adrian McKinty, The Chain is a multi-award-winning suspense thriller that has been described as akin to ‘Jaws for Parents.’

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The Chain is said to follow a woman named Rachel Klein, a mother whose 12-year-old child is kidnapped. Rachel is then forced by a mysterious third party to kidnap another child to have hers released. Thus, she becomes the next link in “The Chain.”

Emma Stone is, of course, one of the biggest names on the Hollywood A-list. The actress has received critical acclaim for her performances in the likes of Easy A, The Favourite, Battle of the Sexes, Birdman, and both the Zombieland and The Amazing Spider-Man franchises, winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of aspiring actress Amelia “Mia” Dolan in 2016’s romantic musical La La Land.

The prospect of Emma Stone working under the direction of Edgar Wright for a suspense thriller as gripping as The Chain sounds is certainly an exciting one; but it’s not happening at this time.

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Your Phone Rings. A Stranger Has Kidnapped Your Child. You Are Now Part of The Chain.

     Orion Books

While Edgar Wright has become well-renowned for his kinetic comedy stylings, the filmmaker has demonstrated his affinity for the more horrific and terrifying. Not only did the zombie rom-com Shaun of the Dead feature some of the most intense undead action for some time, but the director also leapt head first into psychological horror for 2021’s Last Night in Soho. And The Chain sounds like the perfect project for Wright to do it again.

“It’s something parents do every morning: Rachel Klein drops her daughter at the bus stop and heads into her day,” the synopsis for the novel reads. “But a cell phone call from an unknown number changes everything: it’s a woman on the line, informing her that she has Kylie bound and gagged in her back seat, and the only way Rachel will see her again is to follow her instructions exactly: pay a ransom, and find another child to abduct. This is no ordinary kidnapping: the caller is a mother herself, whose son has been taken, and if Rachel doesn’t do as she’s told, the boy will die.

“You are not the first. And you will certainly not be the last.” Rachel is now part of The Chain, an unending and ingenious scheme that turns victims into criminals—and is making someone else very rich in the process,” the synopsis continues. “The rules are simple, the moral challenges impossible; find the money fast, find your victim, and then commit a horrible act you’d have thought yourself incapable of just twenty-four hours ago. But what the masterminds behind The Chain know is that parents will do anything for their children. It turns out that kidnapping is only the beginning.”

The Chain does not yet have a release date.