Shawn Levy is at it again. He helped with turning Stranger Things into one of Netflix’s biggest cultural obsessions. He delivered emotional chaos with The Adam Project. And now, Levy is heading back to the streamer for another original science-fiction project called Somewhere Out There. If you ask me, this sounds like the kind of movie that wraps itself in emotion while hurling stars, grief, and existential dread straight across the screen.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix picked up the film after a competitive bidding war for the spec script written by Max Taxe, the writer behind Moonshot, which was also a major success. The Star Wars director will direct and produce the film through his 21 Laps banner. Continuing one of Netflix’s strongest and most reliable creative partnerships.
The story itself already sounds heavy and packed on an emotional level. The movie follows a grieving father who sends a message into outer space after losing his wife… and somehow, against all logic, he gets a reply back. I guess this film is more interested in emotional impact rather than mindless sci-fi chaos and explosions. Which is a good thing. You see, heartbreak, isolation, and the terrifying feeling that the universe might actually answer back, out weighs thunderbolts. And the truth be told, Shawn Levy has become one of Hollywood’s safest bets when it comes to balancing spectacle with emotion. Whether he’s tapping into the nostalgic ache of Stranger Things. Or the father-son emotional core of The Adam Project, Levy builds blockbuster worlds that never forget the human beings live inside them. Do the explosions matter?, sure. But feelings count for much more.
That emotional angle is exactly why people keep comparing the film to Arrival. Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi masterpiece that proved audiences will gladly sit through aliens and space jargon if the story emotionally destroys them first. Some outlets have also pointed to similarities with The Adam Project. This makes sense considering Levy seems drawn to stories where science fiction becomes a disguise for grief, regret, family, and unfinished emotional business.
Creatively, there’s also something interesting happening here. Hollywood keeps milking franchises, cinematic universes, reboots, and multiverse chaos like the industry forgot how to survive without recycling the same ideas relentlessly. So seeing Netflix aggressively chase an original sci-fi concept feels refreshing. It comes with the slightest bit of danger, like somebody at a boardroom table finally remembered that imagination exists. And if anyone has earned enough goodwill to pull that off, it’s Levy. The man just came off directing Deadpool & Wolverine, while also wrapping production on Star Wars: Starfighter. At this point, his career feels less like a filmography and more like somebody collecting major franchises like Infinity Stones.
This comes as no surprise, given that Levy tends to work with big names. Names such as Ryan Reynolds, Ryan Gosling, Hugh Jackman and Mark Ruffalo. But sources say that several prominent actors are already circling the role of the father. Somewhere Out There has the potential to end up being the more interesting gamble precisely because it is original. Without the decades of lore and the nostalgia life support machine. But just a strange emotional sci-fi story about loss, connection, and whatever answers may or may not be floating out there in the dark. Now that sounds like the exact kind of sci-fi Hollywood needs more of right now.
