Guillermo del Toro Taps The Empty Man Director to Unleash The Boy in the Box on Netflix

Guillermo del Toro already has Frankenstein shambling toward release, but he is also cooking up another nightmare on the side: a Netflix feature based on his own novella The Boy in the Iron Box, with The Empty Man director David Prior calling the shots. That pairing makes a lot of sense if you have seen The Empty Man and know how Prior handles dread.

So what is The Boy in the Iron Box?

Del Toro co-wrote the novella with Chuck Hogan, and the setup is pure ice-cold panic: a team of mercenaries gets stranded on a mountaintop after wolves pick up their trail. They duck into an abandoned fortress to wait out the danger and instead stumble onto something worse — a chained, buried box hidden deep inside. You can guess the box is not empty.

The team-up and the cast

This is round two for the del Toro/Hogan partnership on screen. Their last big collaboration was The Strain, the vampire saga that hit TV back in 2014. They are clearly revisiting that vibe: Kevin Durand, one of the standouts from The Strain, is onboard here as one of the mercs, joined by Jurassic World: Rebirth star Rupert Friend. Jaeden Martell (It) plays the title role — the boy in the box — which should tell you exactly how bad opening that thing goes for everyone else.

Inside baseball: Netflix, Prior, and timing

Per trade reports, del Toro is back in business with Netflix for this one, but he is not directing — he is backing the project while Prior directs, which is a smart piece of casting behind the camera. Production is set to kick off in October.

• Title: The Boy in the Iron Box (based on the novella by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan)
• Director: David Prior (The Empty Man)
• Cast: Kevin Durand and Rupert Friend as mercenaries; Jaeden Martell as the boy
• Platform: Netflix, with del Toro producing/backing
• Filming: Starts in October
• Related: Del Toro's Frankenstein hits theaters Oct 17 and lands on Netflix Nov 7

Meanwhile, about that other monster...

If you are counting the days to Frankenstein, you do not have long to wait: it opens in theaters on October 17 and then shuffles onto Netflix on November 7. Between that and Iron Box going in front of cameras, del Toro is about to have a very busy spooky season.