After landing the high-profile spec Apex earlier this year, the Netflix genre thriller has gained some serious momentum as Deadline is hearing that Charlize Theron is in final negotiations to star, with Baltasar Kormákur in final negotiations to direct.

Jeremy Robbins penned the script, which is described as Free Solo meets Silence of the Lambs and follows a rock climber who finds herself being hunted in the wild.

Theron will produce the project along with Dawn Olmstead, Beth Kono and AJ Dix via their newly launched media company; as will Kormákur through his RVK productions; Ian Bryce ;and Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping and David Ready via through Chernin Entertainment.

This project’s development is rare in the current state of the industry, in which many studios are looking for a big splashy package full of talent before coming on board. In the case of Apex, Netflix execs were so blown away by the script that they bought with only the producers on board. When it came to an actor and director, Theron and Kormákur were their first choices, and in another rare case both committed after reading the script.

In a time when sequels are dominating the release schedule, Apex is an example of a great original story still attracting A-list names.

Theron is no stranger to Netflix, having starred in several films at the streamer including The School of Good and Evil, The Old Guard and its upcoming sequel The Old Guard 2.

Kormákur is coming off the best reviews of his career with the recently released drama Touch. Since its release, the film has earned rave reviews and has a 93% Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Theron is repped by CAA, and Kormákur is repped by Range.