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DreamWorks Acquiring Futuristic Book Trilogy ‘The Fire Sermon’
28 June 2013 6:17 PM, PDT
Exclusive: In a pre-holiday week Friday night deal, DreamWorks is pre-emptively acquiring The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig, a poet and short story writer. It is the first of a trilogy, and Carla Hacken is attached to be producer, one of the first deals for the former exec who signed a producing deal with the studio. The book circulated in manuscript form. The plot: 400 years after a nuclear apocalypse, society is left without technology and all humans are twins. One of each pair is physically perfect, and they are called Alphas, while the other, the Omega, bears some mutation. The apartheid society forces the mutated twins to settlements, even though when one twin dies, so does the other. This is the relationship between a brother and sister twin, and what happens when he becomes a leader in the repressed society. I’m told the author has sketched out the other two books for buyers, »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
Thunder Road’s Basil Iwanyk Teams With Michael De Luca On Alessandro Camon Script ‘No Quarter’
28 June 2013 2:56 PM, PDT
Exclusive: Thunder Road has acquired No Quarter, a spec script by The Messenger scribe Alessandro Camon and Michael Wilson that will be produced by Thunder Road’s Basil Iwanyk and Michael De Luca. No Quarter is a contemporary crime story that touches on the themes of the military and the difficulty of reintegrating back into society after serving as a soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those were themes in The Messenger. Set in Los Angeles in 2007, two friends who were combat Marines and side by side survived some of the toughest fighting in the Iraq war, find themselves on opposite sides of the law. One becomes a star cop in an elite undercover unit while the other gets into a heist crew involved with a drug cartel. These men, who once depended on each other for survival, see their friendship and loyalties put to the test. Both Iwanyk and De »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
Qed Acquires Zombie Pitch ’19′
28 June 2013 1:15 PM, PDT
Exclusive: Qed International‘s Bill Block has made a pre-emptive acquisition of 19, a pitch that will be written by Jim Agnew & Sean Keller. The intention is to turn this into a trilogy. It involves zombies, but takes that genre in a new direction, in that everybody over the age of 19 turns into a walking corpse. That leaves a civilized world to be run by kids. The film will be produced by Film 360 and Wonderland Sound and Vision. The producers also are looking to reverse engineer the 19 idea into a series of books. Attached to direct is Jeff Chan, who got signed by Management 360, ICM Partners and attorney Karl Austen after he made a Call of Duty short film. The scribes are repped by Paradigm and Industry. Qed’s Nick Reimond brought it in. Qed’s next film is Fury, the David Ayer-directed WWII tank drama starring Brad Pitt. »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
Emmy Q&A With ‘Game Of Thrones’ David Benioff And D.B. Weiss
28 June 2013 12:30 PM, PDT
Taking the reins of a book series with a devoted following can be daunting for any producer. But for Game of Thrones executive producers D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, the solution to adapting George R.R. Martin’s fantasy bestsellers was to be diehard fans of the source material. Weiss and Benioff also enjoy a fruitful open dialogue with the author, who Weiss says “ultimately understands that we live and breathe this show. Our devotion to it is total. It’s like a cult.” Their ambition also shows in the scope of the HBO series, which Benioff reveals has a budget of “more than $5 million” an episode, making it among the most expensive epic series produced. Deadline: Last time we spoke was when we first revealed you were doing Game Of Thrones for HBO. D.B. Weiss: Yeah, and you remember that whole Sopranos and Middle Earth thing we first said to you, »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
Will Supreme Court Rulings Give ‘The Front Runner’ Film Momentum?
28 June 2013 8:25 AM, PDT
Exclusive: Supreme Court decisions this week on same sex marriage has given gays, lesbians and transgenders the closest thing to equal rights they have ever seen in the U.S. And the decision by basketball player Jason Collins to declare that he is gay has opened the door for other jocks to do the same. All of this has given Patricia Nell Warren, author of the groundbreaking 1974 gay-themed novel The Front Runner, newfound resolve to try once more to get her book turned into a feature film. The subject matter — a handsome ex-Marine college track coach who has kept his sexuality secret until he becomes the coach of a world-class runner he falls in love with, until they declare their love right before he becomes a gold medalist, and deal with the tragic consequences of an intolerant society — has long tempted Hollywood but always fell short of the start line. »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
Sunshine Sachs Principals Ken Sunshine, Shawn Sachs Start Offshoot Production Shingle For Film, TV, Digital
27 June 2013 4:58 PM, PDT
Exclusive: I’ve seen PR companies become part of ad agencies, and I’ve seen management companies become generators of film and TV content. But here’s a new one on me — a publicity firm branching full scale into the production business. Sunshine Sachs’ principals Ken Sunshine and Shawn Sachs, who do PR for a great client list that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck, Jason Statham, Natalie Portman, Tommy Mottola and Tyler Perry, have launched Madica Productions. This is a sister company that aims to be a full-service development and production house. Madica will develop content for digital, TV and film platforms, with a slate that will include nonscripted and digital content stemming from the firm’s diverse lineup of clients. The managing director of the spinoff company will be Jeff Tahler, who joined the firm as a partner after a six-year run as FremantleMedia Svp Acquisitions and Development for its Global Content Division. »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
Ryan Reynolds To Star In ‘Mississippi Grind’
27 June 2013 4:45 PM, PDT
Exclusive:Ryan Reynolds is set to star with Ben Mendelsohn in Mississippi Grind, the next film for writer/directors Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden. The film focuses on a gambler on a losing streak who teams with a younger gambling addict, hoping to change his luck. They road trip through the South hoping fortune will smile upon them. Fleck and Boden most recently directed Half Nelson and It’s Kind Of A Funny Story. The film is being produced by Electric City partners Jamie Patricof and Lynette Howell, and John Lesher through his Le Grisbi banner. Production will start early next year. Reynolds is coming off Safe House, and next stars with Jeff Bridges in the Robert Schwentke-directed R.I.P.D. He has been mixing studio work with character pieces, and also completed the Atom Egoyan-directed Queen Of The Night, Voices, and the FilmDistrict/Endgame thriller Selfless. The latter is directed by Tarsem Singh, »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
Paramount Sets ‘Terminator’ Relaunch For June 26, 2015
27 June 2013 4:16 PM, PDT
Related: Megan And David Ellison Will Each Pay 33% Of ‘Terminator’ Costs; Paramount Paying The Rest To Bring Arnold Back Paramount has confirmed the long in the works deal to cofinance and distribute the reboot of James Cameron’s Terminator franchise creation. Highbrow picture maker Megan Ellison spent over $20 million for the rights in 2011, and the project didn’t go very far. Things finally started percolating when Megan Ellison and her Annapurna Pictures joined forces with brother David Ellison, whose Skydance Productions has a deal with Paramount and makes popcorn movies. Avatar’s Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier have been working on the script for months. Arnold Schwarzenegger returns as the title character and the hope is to get at least two movies done before North American copyright reverts back to Cameron, who might want a fortune or might want to retire the franchise. Here’s the announcement: Skydance Productions, Annapurna Pictures »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
A24 Acquires ‘The Rover’ With Robert Pattinson And Guy Pearce
27 June 2013 4:05 PM, PDT
A24 today announced the acquisition of David Michôd’s latest film The Rover for theatrical release in the U.S. The slow-burn thriller stars Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson and is set in the Australian desert in a dangerous and damaged near future. The film was written by Michôd and based on a story conceived by Michôd and Joel Edgerton. The Rover was produced by Liz Watts for Porchlight Film and David Linde under his Lava Bear Films banner, along with Michôd. The film also co-stars Scoot McNairy, David Field, Anthony Hayes, Gillian Jones and Susan Prior. Celebrated Argentinean filmmaker Natsha Braier acted as Director of Photography and Michôd also teamed up again with Animal Kingdom Production Designer, Jo Ford. The Rover is set in a world ten years following the collapse of the western economic system, where Australia’s mineral resources have drawn the desperados and dangerous to its shores. »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
‘Garden Of Last Days’ Scrapped As Director/Star James Franco Exits Two Weeks Before Shooting
27 June 2013 3:29 PM, PDT
Exclusive: What is it lately with directors walking off their own movies just before production starts? Two weeks before he was scheduled to begin production as director and star of Garden Of Last Days, James Franco pulled out of the film today. I’m told that effectively scraps a film that had $500,000 spent so far, a $3 million budget and a July 10 production start date. It’s the second time a filmmaker bailed late in the game, after Lynn Ramsay exited Jane Got A Gun hours before production was to start. That film held it together, but I’m told that this will shut down. Franco, currently in theaters in This Is The End, committed to direct and star in late April, just as he was preparing to unveil his latest film, As I Lay Dying screens in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes. I’m hearing that Franco’s »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
Warner Bros Acquires S. Craig Zahler Crime Novel As Re-Team Of ‘Django Unchained’s Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx
27 June 2013 2:09 PM, PDT
Exclusive: In the first major deal made by Greg Silverman since he was promoted to run Warner Bros’ worldwide feature film production arm, the studio has acquired the upcoming S. Craig Zahler crime novel Mean Business On North Ganson Street as a re-team between Django Unchained stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jamie Foxx. Zahler will write the script and DiCaprio and his Appian Way partner Jennifer Davisson Killoran will be the producers. Sarah Schechter is steering it for the studio. The book is right now in galleys, and it is in the process of being shopped to publishers. The tale starts off with a bang: DiCaprio is a hardened detective who, after being told by a man that his beautiful wife is missing, tells him she is a hooker who obviously made off with his money. After the man commits a desperate tragic act right in the squad room, the disgraced »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
Christopher Plummer Replaces Michael Caine In ‘Imagine’
27 June 2013 1:21 PM, PDT
Exclusive: Christopher Plummer will join Jennifer Garner, Al Pacino, Annette Bening and Bobby Cannavale in Imagine, the film that gets underway July 1 in Los Angeles with Crazy, Stupid, Love scribe Dan Fogelman making his directorial debut. Plummer will take on a role that Michael Caine was going to play before scheduling knocked him out. Pacino plays a 70ish musician still leading the decadent rock n roll life. Plummer will play his manager, who gave him an undelivered letter written to him by a 19-year old John Lennon. It compels him to clean up and reconnect with his estranged son. Since winning the Oscar for Beginners, Plummer has wrapped the Michael Radford-directed Elsa & Fred opposite Shirley MacLaine, and the HBO film Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight. Plummer is repped by ICM Partners and Lou Pitt. »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
IFC Midnight Acquires U.S. For Dennis Iliadis-Helmed Thriller ‘+1′
27 June 2013 11:56 AM, PDT
Breaking: IFC Midnight is acquiring U.S. distribution rights to +1, the thriller helmed by Last House On The Left helmer Dennis Iliadis that premiered at SXSW. Scripted by Bill Gullo from a story by Iliadis, the pic stars The Purge‘s Rhys Wakefield, Logan Miller, Chronicle’s Ashley Hinshaw and Natalie Hall. Three college friends go to the biggest party of the year, each looking for something different: love, sex and a simple human connection. A mysterious phenomenon disrupts the party, which descends into a chaos that challenges their friendships and life expectancies. Tim Perell produces and executive producing are the Brothers Strause, Edson Williams, Thomas Nittmann and Guy Botham. Pic is a co-production between Process Production in partnership with leading VFX company Lola/Hydraulx. Latter provided the VFX. Deal was negotiated by Sundance Selects/IFC’s Jeff Deutchman and CAA. »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
Wme Signs Idris Elba
27 June 2013 11:43 AM, PDT
Exclusive: Idris Elba, the talented star of Luther and The Wire who has been in play for the past couple months, has just signed with Wme for all areas. This comes at a great time for Elba, who is finally poised to get his due as a movie star, I think. He reprises his role as the existentially tortured British detective John Luther in the final season of Luther, which premieres September in the U.S. He’s also starring in the Guillermo del Toro-directed Pacific Rim for Legendary and Warner Bros, which opens July 12. Then, he reprises his role as Heimdall in Thor 2: The Dark World, which Marvel and Disney release in November. He finishes the year playing Nelson Mandela in Mandela: The Long Walk To Freedom, which is released in the heat of Oscar season by The Weinstein Company. Elba continues to be managed »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
Lionsgate Buys Two For Elizabeth Banks’ Brownstone Banner; Erica Oyama Adapting ‘White Girl Problems’
27 June 2013 11:28 AM, PDT
Exclusive: Lionsgate is closing two deals for book adaptations that will be produced by Pitch Perfect producers Elizabeth Banks and Max Handelman through their Brownstone Productions banner. They’ve just closed a deal to acquire a pitch for hot scribe Erica Oyama to write a comedy based on Babe Walker’s bestseller White Girl Problems, a comic pseudo-memoir by a pampered gal out to show that even rich people deserve sympathy too. For example: She hates her horse and all the wealthy men she dates, and she has a shopping addiction that caused her once to spend $246,000 at Barneys in an afternoon. Authors Tanner Cohen, David Oliver Cohen and Lara Schoenhals wrote the book under the alias Babe Walker. Lionsgate is separately acquiring for Brownstone Heist Society, the Ally Carter bestseller about a woman who has been part of a larcenous family and tries to go straight. That ends when »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
‘Fifty Shades Of Grey’ Gets August 1, 2014 Release Date
27 June 2013 9:48 AM, PDT
New York, June 27th, 2013 – The global release of Fifty Shades of Grey will start in North America on Friday, August 1st, 2014 with opening dates around the world to be announced. The Focus Features domestic theatrical release will be in theaters nationwide. Universal Pictures International is releasing the movie in the rest of the world. Sam Taylor-Johnson is directing the highly anticipated film adaptation of E L James’ #1 bestselling book. Fifty Shades of Grey has been adapted into a screenplay by Kelly Marcel. Michael De Luca and Dana Brunetti are producing the movie version alongside Ms. James. Universal Pictures and Focus Features acquired the rights to the three books in the “Fifty Shades of Grey” trilogy in March 2012. Focus Features will market and distribute the first film in partnership with Universal. Fifty Shades of Grey has become a global phenomenon and the trilogy has been translated in over 50 languages worldwide since its release. »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
New Regency Moves ’12 Years A Slave’ Up To An October 18 Platform Bow
27 June 2013 8:39 AM, PDT
Exclusive: The release date chess game of the Oscar-bait autumn films continues. After some exuberant test screenings, Fox Searchlight is moving the Steve McQueen-directed Twelve Years A Slave to a limited platform release that will begin October 18. The original plan for the film backed by New Regency and River Road was to start the limited platform release in late December. They felt it could thrive in the fall, instead of waiting for winter. With a cast that includes Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Brad Pitt, the film is based on the true story of one man’s fight for survival and freedom in the pre-Civil War America. Ejoifor plays Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York who is abducted and sold into slavery. He faces cruelty (personified by a malevolent slave owner played by Fassbender) as well as unexpected kindness. In the 12th year of his unforgettable odyssey, »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
Julianne Moore Poised To Join ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay’ Going From Veep Candidate Sarah Palin To President Alma Coin?
27 June 2013 7:43 AM, PDT
Exclusive: As The Hunger Games moves into the final two movies culled from the Suzanne Collins novel Mockingjay, I’ve heard that Lionsgate and director Francis Lawrence are eyeing Julianne Moore to play the role of President Alma Coin. She is the manipulative politician who figures brightly in the finale as Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) becomes a symbol of rebellion against the autocratic Capitol government. This is likely to happen quickly, and Moore would star in both of the final films, which brings back Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth and the returning cast along with Philip Seymour Hoffman, who will be making his first appearance in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which the studio is planning to bring to San Diego Comic-Con in July. Color Force’s Nina Jacobson is producing the series. This comes at a time when Moore has a lot of good stuff going. The actress, who »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
Holy Smokes! Miniseries ‘The Bible’ Passes Million Mark In Vid Sales
27 June 2013 7:39 AM, PDT
This might give a shot of confidence to all of those Biblical-themed features, from the Darren Aronofsky-directed Noah with Russell Crowe to the upcoming Fox film Exodus, with Ridley Scott directing and Christian Bale playing Moses. Beyond the high ratings received when Mark Burnett and Roma Downey’s The Bible ran on History Channel, the 10-parter has become the top-selling mini ever across Blu-ray, DVD and DigitalHD. Los Angeles, CA, June 27, 2013 – The Bible reached a new milestone today with 1 million units sold across Blu-ray, DVD and DigitalHD™. The epic 10-part miniseries from co-executive producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey continues to dominate records everywhere with its unprecedented sales performance. During its run, The Bible propelled History® to number one in all of television from 8-10Pm on Sunday nights with over 100 million viewers. The Bible series will air internationally later this year, followed by its international home entertainment release. »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
Fox Acquires Spec ‘Tranquility Base;’ Scott Free Producing
26 June 2013 11:57 AM, PDT
Exclusive: In a mid-six figure deal, 20th Century Fox has pre-emptively bought Tranquility Base, a spec script by first-time scribe Daniel Turkewitz. Scott Free’s Ridley Scott and Michael Schaefer and Brooklyn Weaver and Jonathan Krauss will produce what was described to me as a big-scale science fiction film that has elements of Lord Of The Flies in space. Key to the deal coming together were former Indian Paintbrush guys Mark Roybal and Michael Pruss. Roybal, who ran Indian Paintbrush for Steve Rales, became a Fox exec and Pruss moved over to Scott Free as an exec. Pruss will be exec producer and Rock Shaink will serve in a co-producing capacity on Tranquility Base. Turkewitz is an Nyu graduate who got his masters in screenwriting. Welcome to Hollywood, young man. He was repped on the deal by Weaver and atty Jeff Frankel. »
- MIKE FLEMING JR
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