Exclusive: Two-time Oscar nominee Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond) has been set to star in the horror-thriller The Monster, which will be directed by the Saw franchise’s Darren Lynn Bousman.

From a screenplay by Jonathan Bernstein and James Greer (Steven Soderbergh’s Unsane), the pic was developed and is being produced by Lee Nelson and David Tish of Envision Media Arts (The Ice Road) alongside Saw franchise producer Mark Burg.

Monster follows two millennials who make quick money by leasing incredible New York City apartments they don’t own to people who don’t know they are being scammed. The con works brilliantly until they run into an apartment owner with a dark secret who flips the game on them.

Principal photography is due to start in Danbury, Ct, in November.

Hounsou, coming off Paramount’s A Quiet Place: Day One, is currently at work on director Vadim Perelman’s thriller The Zealot,...