Lord-Miller's 'Last Human' Reportedly Close to Deal at Sony Pictures

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It looks like Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are staying within Sony's orbit, after the massive success of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

According to a new report from Deadline, the studio is closing in on a massive deal for Last Human, a package for a tentpole project that would be directed and produced by Lord and Miller. The script will be written by Henry Gayden, who most recently contributed to DC's upcoming Shazam!.

The animated film, which is based on Lee Bacon's upcoming children's book of the same name, is being dubbed a "reverse E.T.", and would follow three robots who discover and protect a human child after finding him in a post-apocalyptic bunker. The Last Human book is expected to be published in October by Amulet books.

The report states that the project was the subject of a pretty massive bidding war, which included Warner Bros., Universal, Netflix, MGM/Annapurna, Paramount, New Regency, and MRC. As a result, the upfront commitment for the film is believed to be an eight-figure value up to $15 million, and Lord and Miller could each end up getting significant cuts of the film's total gross.

Last Human will be made through Sony's TriStar label, and will be produced by Hannah Minghella.

This deal comes at a pretty interesting time for Lord and Miller, as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - which was executive produced by both and co-written by Lord - continues to earn accolades throughout awards season. Late last year, several Spider-Verse sequels were announced to be in the works, so it's easy to see why Sony would want to continue their partnership with Lord and Miller.

The pair also co-wrote and executive produced Warner Bros.' The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, which won this past weekend's box office (albeit not by as much as was initially projected). As the duo explained in a recent interview, Spider-Verse and Lego Movie 2 were both impacted in interesting ways from them getting fired from Disney's Solo: A Star Wars Story.

"Obviously we were able to spend a lot of time on these movies and it’s, I think, our good luck that we got to spend so much time making movies we care about," Lord said in an interview last month.

"And, you know, we were really passionate about both of these films and it was a real opportunity for us to be able to really dig in on both of them and be really involved in every aspect of the production," Miller added.

Last Human is poised to be the pair's next film after they finish Artemis, an adaptation of the Andy Weir novel of the same name.

Are you excited to see Lord and Miller bring Last Human to life? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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