Exclusive: Sony’s 3000 Pictures has set Justin Kuritzkes to adapt City on Fire, the first of a bestselling novel trilogy by Don Winslow that is being developed as a star vehicle for Austin Butler.
Kuritzkes is hot off writing the script for the Luca Guadanino-directed Zendaya starrer Challengers, and Butler is producing along with David Heyman of Heyday Films and Shane Salerno of The Story Factory.
After Challengers, Kuritzkes adapted Guadagnino’s next film Queer, starring Daniel Craig and based on William S. Burroughs’ 1985 novel. In 2019, Kuritzkes’ debut novel, Famous People, was published by Henry Holt and Co.
3000’s Elizabeth Gabler and Marisa Paiva are overseeing the City on Fire project for the studio, and Drew Reed was instrumental in tracking the book series.
Winslow’s swan song trilogy – the final installment City in Ruins is just landing on the bestseller lists after being published by William Morrow – is...
Kuritzkes is hot off writing the script for the Luca Guadanino-directed Zendaya starrer Challengers, and Butler is producing along with David Heyman of Heyday Films and Shane Salerno of The Story Factory.
After Challengers, Kuritzkes adapted Guadagnino’s next film Queer, starring Daniel Craig and based on William S. Burroughs’ 1985 novel. In 2019, Kuritzkes’ debut novel, Famous People, was published by Henry Holt and Co.
3000’s Elizabeth Gabler and Marisa Paiva are overseeing the City on Fire project for the studio, and Drew Reed was instrumental in tracking the book series.
Winslow’s swan song trilogy – the final installment City in Ruins is just landing on the bestseller lists after being published by William Morrow – is...
- 4/16/2024
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Your staying power with Pietro Castellitto’s genre-adjacent non-thriller Enea will depend on your appetite for well-heeled Romans blathering on tirelessly about the encroaching emptiness inside them. An overlong, windy film that purports to investigate the hypocrisy, shallowness and moral decay of wealthy Italians but feels too embedded in that world to have much bite, this is a soulless bit of self-indulgence that seems far too pleased with itself. It’s full of flashy technique and ostentatious stylistic flourishes but has almost nothing of note to say about the supposed burdens of privilege.
The writer-director-lead actor’s father, Sergio Castellitto, among his many screen credits starred for three seasons in the psychotherapist role on the Italian version of In Treatment. That provides a winking in-joke for domestic audiences in his casting here as another shrink, Celeste, the title character’s despondent father, who generally has his head too deep in books to look at life.
The writer-director-lead actor’s father, Sergio Castellitto, among his many screen credits starred for three seasons in the psychotherapist role on the Italian version of In Treatment. That provides a winking in-joke for domestic audiences in his casting here as another shrink, Celeste, the title character’s despondent father, who generally has his head too deep in books to look at life.
- 9/7/2023
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Deal or No Deal: Castellitto Distracted by Design in Drug Pusher Drama
Director Pietro Castellitto embarks on a familial affair with sophomore film Enea, in which he stars as the lead alongside his real life father, actor/director Sergio Castellitto as members of a wealthy Italian family who become involved in a drug money feud. Taking slight inspiration from Virgil’s Aeneid, a young man nearing thirty finds his aimlessness interrupted when a novel opportunity lands in his lap to sell twenty kilos of cocaine for a local king pin.
Despite being an inviting screen presence, Castellitto can’t quite decide on a cohesive approach to the material, introducing shards of themes and characters about intergenerational differences and the suffocating ennui of the present all chaotically introduced before the narrative finally starts to take shape.…...
Director Pietro Castellitto embarks on a familial affair with sophomore film Enea, in which he stars as the lead alongside his real life father, actor/director Sergio Castellitto as members of a wealthy Italian family who become involved in a drug money feud. Taking slight inspiration from Virgil’s Aeneid, a young man nearing thirty finds his aimlessness interrupted when a novel opportunity lands in his lap to sell twenty kilos of cocaine for a local king pin.
Despite being an inviting screen presence, Castellitto can’t quite decide on a cohesive approach to the material, introducing shards of themes and characters about intergenerational differences and the suffocating ennui of the present all chaotically introduced before the narrative finally starts to take shape.…...
- 9/5/2023
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Austin Butler has found his next starring role.
According to Deadline, the Oscar-nominated actor will be both starring in and producing “City on Fire”, an adaptation of the novel by Don Winslow of the same name. Sony 3000 Pictures will be making the film.
Butler will be producing the film alongside industry heavyweights David Heyman and Shane Salerno (“Border Trilogy”), who boast quite an extensive film resume.
Read More: Fans Commend Angela Bassett For Comforting Austin Butler During Oscars Best Actor Loss: ‘Exactly The Kind Of Woman I Imagined’
The novel’s premise takes inspiration from classic Greek mythologies, including The Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid, and embeds them into a modern mafia world of crime. The book belongs to a trilogy, so the hope is to make Butler the lead of a film franchise.
The film revolves around two criminal empires, one Irish and one Italian, that control New England. Butler...
According to Deadline, the Oscar-nominated actor will be both starring in and producing “City on Fire”, an adaptation of the novel by Don Winslow of the same name. Sony 3000 Pictures will be making the film.
Butler will be producing the film alongside industry heavyweights David Heyman and Shane Salerno (“Border Trilogy”), who boast quite an extensive film resume.
Read More: Fans Commend Angela Bassett For Comforting Austin Butler During Oscars Best Actor Loss: ‘Exactly The Kind Of Woman I Imagined’
The novel’s premise takes inspiration from classic Greek mythologies, including The Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid, and embeds them into a modern mafia world of crime. The book belongs to a trilogy, so the hope is to make Butler the lead of a film franchise.
The film revolves around two criminal empires, one Irish and one Italian, that control New England. Butler...
- 4/4/2023
- by Emerson Pearson
- ET Canada
Austin Butler is going from the sands of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two to a life of crime for City on Fire, an adaptation of Don Winslow’s novel from Sony 3000 Pictures. In addition to his starring role, Butler produces alongside David Heyman and Shane Salerno. No director or writers have joined the project, but the studio will prioritize the adaptation. City on Fire is the first title in a trilogy, setting up the potential for Butler to star in his first franchise.
According to Deadline, Winslow’s trilogy borrows inspiration from The Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, and Greek tragedies but takes place in a modern setting. “The trilogy focuses on two criminal empires — one Irish, the other Italian — that control all of New England. A modern-day Helen of Troy event tears them apart and starts a brutal war. Butler will play the main character, Danny Ryan, who grows from...
According to Deadline, Winslow’s trilogy borrows inspiration from The Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, and Greek tragedies but takes place in a modern setting. “The trilogy focuses on two criminal empires — one Irish, the other Italian — that control all of New England. A modern-day Helen of Troy event tears them apart and starts a brutal war. Butler will play the main character, Danny Ryan, who grows from...
- 4/3/2023
- by Steve Seigh
- JoBlo.com
Austin Butler will star in Sony 3000 Pictures’ adaptation of “City on Fire.” The Don Winslow-penned novel, the first in a series, uses elements of “The Iliad,” “The Odyssey,” “Aeneid” and other Greek dramas and puts them in a contemporary crime sandbox. Butler will play Danny Ryan, a street criminal-turned-ruthless leader amid a gang war between Irish and Italian crime families in New England.
The film will mark the actor’s first role since his Oscar-nominated for playing Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis,” as well as his first as a producer. Butler will produce the picture alongside David Heyman and Shane Salerno.
3000 Pictures exec Drew Reed was instrumental in tracking the series, while Elizabeth Gabler and Marisa Paiva are overseeing for the studio. All parties hope that the first film will be successful enough to justify feature film adaptations of the next two novels in the series.
The film will mark the actor’s first role since his Oscar-nominated for playing Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis,” as well as his first as a producer. Butler will produce the picture alongside David Heyman and Shane Salerno.
3000 Pictures exec Drew Reed was instrumental in tracking the series, while Elizabeth Gabler and Marisa Paiva are overseeing for the studio. All parties hope that the first film will be successful enough to justify feature film adaptations of the next two novels in the series.
- 4/3/2023
- by Scott Mendelson
- The Wrap
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