The Lost Bus has an interesting development history –– Jamie Lee Curtis heard Lizzie Johnson talking up her book Paradise: One Town’s Struggle To Survive An American Wildfire, about the deadly 2018 Camp fire in California, on a radio show. Inspired by the story of a bus driver and teacher who guided a group of students to safety through a raging fire in a school bus, she enquired about the rights via her Comet Films company. She brought the project to Blumhouse, where Comet has a first-look deal and producer Jason Blum saw the chance for the company to work on a non-horror movie (though we can see it being terrifying if you’re rightfully afraid of fire).

The pair hired Out Of The Furnace‘s Brad Ingelsby to adapt the book into a script, and in early 2023 got it in front of Greengrass. He agreed to jump aboard, but any forward motion was delayed by last year’s strikes. Now it’s back — with Apple Original Films looking to pick it up for distribution — and McConaughey is zeroing in on the role of the driver.