Scott Derrickson directing The Gorge

Scott Derrickson is to direct the action love story 'The Gorge'.

The 55-year-old filmmaker, whose previous credits include 'Doctor Strange' and 'Sinister', is to helm the flick for Skydance.

Plot details are being kept firmly under wraps, but 'The Gorge' is described as "a high-action, genre-bending love story" by the studio – which picked up the project as a spec script by Zach Dean.

'The Gorge' featured on the 2020 Black List, an annual list of the most-liked unproduced scripts in Hollywood, and Skydance decided to pick it up that year and developed it internally.

Derrickson and his producing partners C. Robert Cargill and Sherryl Clark are producing the feature for Crooked Highway with David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Don Granger producing the movie for Skydance.

Scott helmed the original 'Doctor Strange' film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) but dropped out of the sequel 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' due to creative differences and was replaced by Sam Raimi.

The director praised a trailer for the movie – which will star Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead role – after it aired during the Super Bowl last month.

In a tweet responding to a fan, Scott said: "The trailer is great and of course I'm excited!

"I love Sam - he was the right director for this one, just as 'The Black Phone' was the right film for me to go make. All is good."

Benedict has previously shared his disappointment that Derrickson had departed the project but says the move was "amicable".

He said: "I was sad to hear about it, but that was not my decision.

"I completely respected the studio’s decision, and it was done very amicably.

"The grown-ups called and just talked me through it. And that was that."