WIRE Buzz: Game of Thrones writer heads to Lord of the Rings; James Wan's new horror film

Today’s WIRE Buzz involves big-name producers heading up new projects on every end of the genre spectrum, from classical fantasy to relationship horror. With James Wan, Sam Raimi, and the third head of Game of Thrones’ dragon behind them, these upcoming stories have a lot of additional heft.

First up is Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series. While secrecy still abounds regarding the Second Age-set show, Variety has found sources confirming what George R.R. Martin hinted at in his finale-centric blog post: Bryan Cogman is heading to Middle-earth. The Game of Thrones writer/co-executive producer has been hired to consult on the upcoming LotR series, working alongside writers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay.

Cogman, who wrote the final season’s second episode, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” recently lost his Game of Thrones spinoff at HBO and signed an overall deal at Amazon. That means the walking fantasy database’s talents could be put to good use making sure the new series is book-accurate for many seasons to come — especially since there are no dates yet set in stone for its premiere.

Next, one of horror’s most prolific voices is shepherding a newcomer to Hollywood. James Wan and Sam Raimi are helping bring a Dutch short film to the world of terrifying features. Deadline reports that writer/director Nico van den Brink’s short The Burden is being produced as a feature film by both James Wan’s Atomic Monster and Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures.

The story is about a woman going to her boyfriend’s family home, where everything is scary and secret histories and spooky neighbors go hand in hand. This isn’t van den Brink’s first horror short success, as his last short, Sweet Tooth, was bought by New Line with plans for a similar adaptation.

No word on when The Burden will begin production.

Finally, an upcoming sci-fi thriller has added a Hellboy star. Stowaway, the Anna Kendrick-starring film from director Joe Penna about an unplanned (and potentially life-threatening) passenger on a long space mission, has added Daniel Dae Kim.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the actor will play a biologist opposite Kendrick's medical researcher and Toni Collette's captain. Kendrick is the lone voice arguing to spare the titular stowaway (Shamier Anderson), while the rest of the crew advocates for the logical (yet brutal) choice to save the ship.

Stowaway begins production in Germany next month.