Filmmaker and visual effects artist Christian Rivers reportedly has signed on to direct the feature drama Into Thin Air,  based on the unsolved mystery behind the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in 2014.

Rivers is an Academy Award winner for best visual effects in the 2006 film King Kong. He first met director Peter Jackson at 17 year old, and has storyboarded all of Jackson’s films, including The Lord Of The Rings, The Hobbit, and Mortal Engines (2019), which was also his directorial debut. Into Thin Air is written by Oscar-winning documentarian Jonas McCord, whose previous credits include Malice and Ask The Dust. McCord will also be producing the film with Oscar winner Barrie Osbourne, Kia Jam, and Dean Altit.

Rivers offered this statement to Deadline regarding his selection: “I couldn’t be more excited to bring this story to the screen. In this modern age of technology and instant information, there are very few mysteries of this kind. But at its heart it’s a human story of a man trying to move past his own loss and find answers for those who are still suffering.”

Based on a true event, Into Thin Air centers around a rogue investigator and a young journalist uncovering the tragedy of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and the conspiracy theories behind its unprecedented disappearance. In 2014 the plane, which carried 227 passengers and 12 flight crew members, vanished after takeoff from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to its destination, Beijing Capital International Airport. Hypotheses of the disappearance include a military air strike, a crew suicide or hijacking, and even alien abduction, although none of them were proven to this day. Especially the alien conspiracy.