Month: May 2021

Specs On Endangered List? Lionsgate/Summit Acquires ‘Endangered’ For Alli Shearmur

EXCLUSIVE: Long live the spec script! Lionsgate just boughtEndangered, a spec script by Ryan Belenzon and Jeffrey Gelber to Lionsgate/Summit with Alli Shearmur producing. It’s an action-adventure script about a team of scientists on a mission to find the fountain of youth. This might be the first spec script deal of the year and comes along just when I was thinking that specs were on the endangered list. The writers, who were recently Nicholls finalists, also have Clarity, a character driven sci-fi piece set up at BonaFide and are producing Dito Montiel’s Boulevard, which has Robin Williams set to star. They are repped by Paradigm, Zero Gravity and attorney Ryan Nord.

Sentinel sponsors ‘Blood Drive’

Beitchman, Brawer to produce action thriller from Parkes script
Sentinel Pictures has come on board “Blood Drive,” picking up Christian Parkes action thriller spec screenplay with plans to shoot this fall.

Sentinel’s David Beitchman and Adam Brawer will produce.

Story centers on an everyday guy with the rarest of blood types who is suddenly and unexpectedly forced to deliver his very own, freshly stolen kidney to an infamous criminal whose life depends on it.

Sentinel recently wrapped production on relationship drama “Match” starring Patrick Stewart, Carla Gugino and Matthew Lillard. Parkes currently has action-thriller “P.O.V. (Point of Violence)” set up at Millennium Films with Ric Roman Waugh attached to direct.

Sentinel is represented by attorney Roger Haber. Parkes is repped by Jeffrey Belkin at Zero Gravity Management.

BILL DUBUQUE – VARIETY TO WATCH

10 Screenwriters to Watch 2012: Bill Dubuque
After 12 years of working as a corporate headhunter, Dubuque was ready for a change. “It gets to the point where you just want to do something different,” says Dubuque, who switched to screenwriting. “I was confident that I could do this. I went to the library, got as many books as I could find about how to write a screenplay and went at it.”

And yet, Dubuque’s unlikely background has proved a unique benefit to his approach. His first script, “The Headhunter’s Calling,” drew from life experience, while his writing style was an extension of that job.

“More than anything else, my inspiration for the dialogue and the scenery come from headhunting,” he says. “When you’re on the phone and you don’t see these people, you’ve got to fill in the blanks. It’s just like writing a scene.”

After “The Headhunter’s Calling” captured the attention of Robert Downey Jr. and his associates, they deemed Dubuque the perfect guy to revise a screenplay the producer-star wanted to make. That project, “The Judge,” tells the story of a bigshot Chicago lawyer who returns to his tiny hometown to defend his estranged father.

“It’s not so much a legal drama as it is a relationship drama,” Dubuque says. “It’s a father-and-son story.”

With two scripts in the can for Warners, another that he’s working on and an upcoming two-film blind deal to work on projects for Team Downey, Dubuque is definitely in demand. But the self-effacing screenwriter seems content to lie back and let things take their course.

“That’s one of the reasons I get along so well with my agent and my manager,” he jokes. “I’m not calling every day and saying ‘What do you hear?’ ”

Reps: Zero Gravity Management, Paradigm

‘RoboCop’ Director in Talks for ‘The Brotherhood’ at Warner Bros.

Brazilian filmmaker Jose Padilha would helm the true-crime thriller, an adaptation of the acclaimed book “The Brotherhoods: The True Story of Two Cops Who Murdered for the Mafia.”

Brazilian filmmaker Jose Padilha broke out onto the world stage with his gritty Elite Squad crime movies, then nabbed a coveted gig directing MGM’s remake of RoboCop.

Now the director is setting the stage his next studio project: a crime movie at Warner Bros.

Padilha is in negotiations to direct The Brotherhood, an adaptation of the book The Brotherhoods: The True Story of Two Cops Who Murdered for the Mafia, written by Guy Lawson and William Oldham. Dan Lin is producing.

Reading almost like a true-life variation of the Martin Scorsese film The Departed, the book centers on two corrupt detectives, one working surreptitiously for the Luchese crime family, the other for the Gambino family. For years the men threw cases, scrapped evidence and even killed.

Oldham is the third point in the story, a detective who spent more than seven years tracking the men, eventually bringing them to justice in a sensational trial.

The book was wel-reviewed, with many singling out the great characters that populate the story.

Bill Dubuque, who also worked on Warners’Robert Downey Jr. dramedy The Judge, which is in pre-production, wrote the script.

The material seems tailor-made for Padilha, whose Elite Squad movies were complex and compelling crime dramas filled with corruption, office politics, and action pieces. Elite Squad won the Golden Bear at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival while its 2010 sequel, Elite Squad: The Enemy Within, broke Brazilian records set by movies such as Avatar.

Padilha’s RoboCop is set for a Feb. 7, 2014, release.

He is repped by CAA and Cowan DeBaets.

‘Twilight Saga’s Kellan Lutz To Star In ‘Tatua’

EXCLUSIVE: Now that theTwilight Saga series is over, the fittest vampire in the pack, Kellan Lutz, has found a new potential franchise to sink his teeth into. Lutz has signed to star in the indie genre film Tatua. Based on an original concept by comic book creators Paul Jenkins and Rob Prior, Tatua is about a man with a rare blood type that allows him to be tattooed with a powerful ink. He is able to pull those weapons straight off his skin, giving him an enviable leg up as a covert assassin. Aaron Sims, the vfx wiz who helmed the viral sensation short Archetype, is set to make his directing debut on the film, says Rick Schwartz, whose Overnight Productions has lined up the financing for a March production start in Toronto.

Paul Layden wrote the script, and Schwartz will produce with Todd Breau and Kari Hollend. Schwartz’s producing credits include the upcoming Machete Kills, Black Swan, The Departed and The Others.

Schwartz tells me he wanted to find a genre film that was less expensive than a superhero film, and in the vein of contained budget films like Resident Evil andUnderworld. The concept certainly is unusual, as the tattooed weapons are culled from the combination of the ink, the character’s blood and adrenaline. They must be used quickly or they begin to dissolve, and the whole process takes a toll on the body of the assassin. All this becomes an afterthought when the assassin’s son is kidnapped by one of his most notoriously violent targets. The film will bear a budget around $15 million and all distribution rights are available.

“Kellan was in the foreground and the background of the Twilight Saga films, but he is a formidable physical presence and this is an opportunity for him to step up,” Schwartz said. Also helpful is that Lutz looks good without a shirt, which will be part of the bargain as he strips tattoos off his body to create mayhem. Tatuaat its heart is a cool, visually arresting origin story.” Lutz is repped by Innovative and Zero Gravity Management. Sims, who has done character design and concept art for films including Twilight Saga, is repped by Paradigm and Artists and Directors Cooperative.

IFC Picks Up Java Heat

IFC Films has picked up the U.S rights to Java Heat. They plan a nationwide theatrical release for the action thriller in 2013. Java Heat is directed by Conor Allyn, who wrote the screenplay with his father and Margate House Films partner Rob Allyn. The deal was put together by Sundance Selects/IFC Films’ VP for Acquisitions and Production Arianna Bocco with WME Global negotiating on behalf of filmmakers Margate House Films. Java Heat stars Mickey Rourke, the Twilight Saga’s Kellan Lutz and Indonesian star Ario Bayu. The Iron Man 2 star plays Malik, a twisted terrorist behind a series of embassy bombings. Jake Travers, a shoot-first-ask-questions-later American played by Lutz, and Hashim, an Indonesian police detective, team up to hunt for him. In the process the duo discover the politics of terror are more sinister than they even suspected. Conor Allyn is repped by Zero Gravity Management. Kellan Lutz is repped by Zero Gravity Management and Innovative Artists. Mickey Rourke is repped by ICM Partners.

AFM 2012: Synchronicity Lines Up New Elijah Wood, John Cusack Films

The new genre production and international sales company is helping to finance horror pic “Cooties” and thriller “Due Process,” and will shop both titles at the American Film Market.

Cooties is one of two new projects being shopped at the American Film Market by Synchronicity Entertainment. The other is John Cusack thriller Due Process.

Synchronicity is the new genre film production and international label launched by Lisa Wilson and Mysles Nestel‘s The Solution Entertainment Group, which is arranging financing for both films. Synchronicity also will shop third-party title Smiley, a completed film directed by Michael Gallagher of YouTube fame.

Siren Studios is The Solution’s partner in Synchronicity.

Cooties comes with additional pedigree — it was co-written by Leigh Whannell (Insidious) and Ian Brennan, co-creator of Glee. Directed by Ace Norton, Cooties begins when a mysterious virus hits an isolated elementary school, transforming the kids into a feral swarm of mass savages. An unlikely hero must led a motley band of teachers in the fight of their lives.

Producers include Wood and Steven Schneider, a producer on the Paranormal Activity franchise.

Paradigm is handling North American rights, with Cooties set to start shooting in April.

“My friend Ian Brennan and I wanted to write a film about one of life’s most universal experiences — hatred for precocious, adorable children,” Whannell said.

Paul Currie will direct Cusack in Due Process, a harrowing story of two big city bankers who head to a farm to foreclose it, but get more than they bargained for when the farmer (Cusack) is not willing to hand it over. Zero Gravity Management’s Mark Holder,Christine Holder and Mark Williams will produce.

“What’s interesting about Due Process is that it meshes the socially relevant reality of a personal financial housing crisis with gut-wrenching twists and turns of a taut thriller,” said Christine Holder, adding that the movie begins production in January.

Smiley, about a mentally fragile teen who must decide whether she is going insane, or become the next victim of a serial killer, stars social media denizens Shane Dawson, Toby Turner and DeStorm Power. The film, now completed, makes its market debut at AFM.

Boris Kodjoe Lands Lead in Lionsgate’s ‘Addicted’

The Billie Woodruff-helmed film centers on a wife and mother caught up in the throes of sex addiction.

The Billie Woodruff-helmed film, based on the novel by New York Times best-selling authorZane, will be produced by Paul Hall and executive produced by Charisse Nesbit.

Christina Welsh (repped by Zero Gravity Management) wrote the screenplay.

The story centers on Zoe, a woman in a perfectly quaint marriage. The couple are busy raising three children while devoted to their careers. However, it’s not enough to fulfill all of her desires

as she soon finds herself satisfying her addiction to sex with other men, which puts her on a dangerous path that she may not survive. The part of Zoe has not yet been cast.

Kodjoe was most recently seen in Resident Evil: Retribution as well as Resident Evil: Afterlife. He also appeared in Surrogates and Madea’s Family Reunion.

Kodjoe is repped by Gersh, Untitled and Bloom Hergott.

‘Fanboy’ Director Working on Star Wars-Themed ‘Chewie’

Kyle Newman is developing the film, which tells the story of actor Peter Mayhew’s life during the making of the 1977 sci-fi classic.

Chewbacca may finally get his own movie. Sort of.

Inferno Entertainment and director Kyle Newman are developing Chewie, the Black List script centered around Peter Mayhew, the seven-foot three-inch actor who played the wooly Wookiee in the Star Warsmovies.

The script, by Evan Susserand Van Robichaux, is set against the backdrop of the making of 1977’s Star Warsand tracks Mayhew as he tries to balance a career as a hospital worker while chasing Hollywood dreams by playing a suited alien who would go on to become one of the most iconic screen sidekicks in modern times.

Newman, who is well-known in the Star Warsuniverse for his love of the property and directed theStar Wars-themed comedy Fanboys, secured Mayhew’s life rights in order to further develop the script, which was written initially as a spec.

Mayhew revealed he was working with Newman in a tweet.

Producing are Jess Rosenthal and Inferno’s D.J. Gugenheim. Newman is repped by UTA and Zero Gravity Management.