Screenwriter Joe Russo says his latest project, Netflix's The Last Will & Testament of Charles Abernathy, was "born out of necessity."

"My go-to composer and Abernathy associate producer, John Jesensky, and I were horrified by what we were seeing politically at the time and we thought — wouldn’t it be cathartic if we could crack a horror movie where the ultra-rich are terrorized?"

Once Russo landed on the theme, he quickly went to work with his long-time writing partner, Chris LaMont, to craft the story. While Russo had been initially approached to create a movie that could be shot in one location on a micro-budget, he says that once he and LaMont started writing the script, "Two things became apparent very quickly — we’d identified a story my reps were very excited about, and there was no way it could be done justice on a micro-budget, so we instead decided to write it on spec. It turned out to be a good bet! It opened up tons of doors for us and wound up making The 2018 BloodList and Hit List."

According to Russo, the screenplay's success was a fast turnaround. Brainstorming began in January and the first draft was completed by February.  A “ready for market” script was ready by April. Once the script landed at Netflix, "Things moved even faster because we were green-lit from the jump," he says. "There was only about two months to crank out all the production rewrites."

The film follows billionaire Charles Abernathy (Bob Gunton) who, on the eve of his 75th birthday, invites his four estranged children back home out of fear that tonight someone – or something – is coming to kill him. To ensure his family will help protect him from whatever’s coming, Abernathy puts each of their inheritances on the line: They’ll get nothing if he’s found dead by dawn.

The horror film is directed by Alejandro Brugués, with who Russo previously collaborated on the horror anthology feature, Nightmare Cinema. "We had an incredible experience. It was a joy to work with him again on Abernathy and know that our script was in the hands of a friend who I trust."

Speaking of friends, Russo's and LaMont's partnership goes back to their film school days at Arizona State University where Russo was a student and LaMont was a young faculty member.