Best known for its television productions, Bad Robot – which don’t forget co-produced the highest grossing film in North American box office history with The Force Awakens – is downsizing as J.J. Abrams takes the company from Los Angeles across the country to New York to work with outside producers to develop feature and TV projects. Abrams will return to the directing chair with The Great Beyond, where he brings together three former Jurassic stars, Samuel L. Jackson (Jurassic Park), Glen Powell and Jenna Ortega (who both featured in the Netflix animated series Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous).
For nearly 30 years, Abrams and Bad Robot have been the force behind massive film and TV hits, particularly in the sci-fi genre, including “Alias,” “Lost,” “Fringe,” “Westworld,” “Super 8,” “Cloverfield,” the “Mission: Impossible” sequels and the latest “Star Trek” and “Star Wars” big-screen reboots.
Abrams founded the Santa Monica-based production company in 1999. He co-leads the banner with executive VP Bryan Burk, with Katie McGrath serving as co-CEO and overseeing culture and philanthropy.
Bad Robot most recently produced “The End of Oak Street,” a new sci-fi thriller starring Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor. The movie, from filmmaker David Robert Mitchell (“It Follows”), is set to debut theatrically on August 14. Then, “The Great Beyond” — Abrams’ first directorial effort since 2019’s “Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker,” starring Glen Powell, Jenna Ortega and Samuel L. Jackson — will debut in Imax theaters this November.
