Screenwriter Peter Craig, who co-wrote the upcoming Gladiator II, and producer Bryan Unkeless, known for such fare as I, Tonya and Project Power, have teamed up to launch film and television production banner Night Owl.

It’s no small flex to launch a shingle in the current Hollywood climate, but the two players have extremely enviable track records and, more importantly, come with several projects already zipping along the development tracks.

There’s the adaptation of Shelby Van Pelt’s wildly popular novel Remarkably Bright Creatures, which is set up at Netflix with Where the Crawdads Sing filmmaker Olivia Newman attached to direct and Sally Field attached to star. (Fun fact: Craig is Field’s son.)

There’s Tropical Underworld, a crime drama series set in Hawaii and based on a Bloomberg article written by Chris Pomorski. The project sold in a competitive bidding war to Fifth Season, which beat out such companies as A24,...