After another big screen success with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, J.J. Abrams has an ongoing list of producing projects, including the upcoming sequel films Mission: Impossible 6, 10 Cloverfield Lane, and Star Trek Beyond. His TV production duties include the possible last season of Person of Interest, HBO’s postponed Westworld, and new Showtime series Roadies.

Lingering on his schedule since 2012 is the film God Particle, a sci-fi thriller originally set to be produced by Paramount’s InSurge with a budget in the $5-$10 million dollar range. Paramount and Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions selected the newcomer Julius Onah to direct. The Nigerian-American filmmaker’s resume includes mostly short films, plus the recent Spike Lee-produced movie The Girl Is in Trouble.

With InSurge closing shop last year, the film remained in limbo, but now Variety reports that God Particle has an official release date of February 24, 2017. Bad Robot, Paramount, and Onah are still attached to the project, though there’s no word yet on who will star in the movie. The original script, penned by Oren Uziel (22 Jump Street), involves the crew on a space station orbiting our planet in the near future. The team must fight for survival after a Hadron collider accident causes the Earth to completely vanish.

The project was originally conceived during the Large Hadron Collider’s initial testing phase, which ran from 2008-2013. The enormous particle accelerator sparked many doomsday fears, including the creation of black holes and the destruction of the entire planet. While scientists insist the experiments are safe, it’s easy to see how the upcoming film will tap into viewers’ concerns about messing with the fabric of reality.

Considering the opening date is only a year away, with no cast yet announced, it’s likely God Particle will remain a smaller budget film. Billed as a sci-fi thriller, it will probably focus more on the emotions and resourcefulness of the stranded astronauts than on flashy special effects sequences. We’ll bring you more details on the cast and story of the film as they become available.

God Particle opens in theaters on February 24, 2017.

Source: Variety