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Archive for January 14th, 2009

Wednesday, January 14th, 2009

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 14, 2009

PROJECTS ANNOUNCED

Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban’s 2929 Prods. has set “House of Saddam” scribe Alex Holmes to write “The Infiltrator,” a drama about a Customs official who helped uncover a massive money laundering scheme that involved Pablo Escobar. The production company has optioned “The Infiltrator: My Secret Life Inside the Dirty Banks Behind Pablo Escobar’s Medellin Cartel,” a memoir by Robert Mazur to be published by Arcade in April. Holmes’ adaptation will focus on Mazur’s transformation from a married accountant to an undercover operative who hobnobbed with unsavory figures and brought down several major banks that were laundering tens of millions of dollars for Escobar as well as Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega, Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Daniel Lagana has been tapped to adapt the young-adult book “Spanking Shakespeare” for Paramount Pictures. Based on the debut novel by New York-based eighth-grade teacher Jake Wizner, story centers on Shakespeare Shapiro, who chronicles every mortifying detail of his quest to get into college and find a girlfriend in his memoir. “Spanking Shakespeare,” which was published in paperback in October, will be released under Paramount’s MTV Films label.

Producers Michael Cerenzie and Christine Peters are bringing a Steve McQueen biopic to the bigscreen. The pair have acquired the rights to Marshall Terrill’s biography “Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel.” Project will likely land at Paramount, where Cerenzie-Peters Prods. has a first-look deal. Project will primarily chronicle McQueen’s Hollywood career, which began in 1956 when the Indiana native got his break in the pic “Somebody Up There Likes Me.”

Stone Village has picked up spec thriller “The Field,” by tyro scribes Sean Wathen and Josh Dobkin. Story is set in an endless field, where a group of strangers wake up with seemingly random items and must find a way out.

Disney has acquired a pitch for a supernatural comedy to be scripted by Ron Burch and David Kidd. The deal’s worth $500,000 against $1 million. Pic doesn’t have a star attached or even a title, but it is a template for a big-scale comedy. Offspring Entertainment partners Adam Shankman and Jennifer Gibgot are producing.

Summit has nabbed rights to Gayle Forman’s young adult novel “If I Stay.” Story follows a young musician and her rocker boyfriend who get caught up in a tragic car wreck. Dutton Children’s Books will publish the tome in the spring.

Paramount and Parkes/MacDonald are going digital, putting into development a techno-thriller titled “Daemon” based on the novel by publishing phenom Daniel Suarez. Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald will produce the project, which centers on an iconic game designer who, before he died, set up a program to fight mankind, with the story then exploring the ensuing man-vs.-machine battle. A daemon is a computer program that runs without the direct control of a human.

PROJECT UPDATES

Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer have set “John Adams” helmer Tom Hooper to direct and Christopher Hampton to write “East of Eden,” an adaptation of the John Steinbeck novel. Grazer will produce with Grand Illusions Entertainment’s Jonathan Sanger and Ed Albert. First published in 1952, “East of Eden” is Steinbeck’s retelling of the Cain and Abel story, set in California’s Salinas Valley. The multigenerational story focuses on the Trask brothers and a woman who comes between the siblings.

Jackie Chan is in final negotiations to join the Columbia Pictures remake of “The Karate Kid.” Harald Zwart will helm the pic, which has been revamped as a starring vehicle for Jaden Smith. Set in an exotic Asian locale, the new film will borrow elements of the original plot, wherein a bullied youth (Smith) learns to stand up for himself with the help of an eccentric mentor (Chan). Chris Murphy penned the screenplay. “Karate Kid” will shoot early this summer in Beijing.

CBS Films has greenlighted its first movie, bringing on Brendan Fraser to star opposite Harrison Ford in a medical drama and setting an early April start date. Fraser will play John Crowley, the father of two children who were diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder for which he’s told there is no cure. Unbowed, he seeks out the help of an experimental and sometimes irascible doctor (Ford) who works to find a way to save the children’s lives. The roles of Fraser’s wife and kids have not been cast in what CBS is calling its untitled Crowley project.

BUSINESS NEWS

Steve Carell has formed a TV wing of his Carousel Prods. shingle and struck a three-year first-look deal with Universal Media Studios, which is Carell’s TV studio home for NBC’s “The Office.” Carousel Television will be run by Thom Hinkle, who started out with Carell on “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,” and Campbell Smith. The TV company is part of the Carousel Prods. banner that Carell planted last fall at Warner Bros. to develop comedy features, some of which will be star vehicles. “Daily Show” alum Vance DeGeneres and Charlie Hartsock are running the shingle for Carell.

Producer Andrew Panay is venturing out of his role as a partner at Tapestry Films to sign a three-year exclusive deal that will see him developing and producing movies for Walt Disney Studios. Panay will produce the feature projects via his unnamed studio-based shingle, which will add staffers. The deal is a homecoming of sorts for Panay, who began his career as an intern and assistant at Disney.

INDUSTRY MOVES

Endeavor has signed Oscar winners Jessica Lange, William Hurt and Anthony Hopkins. The trio had been repped by CAA. Agency watchers feel that the movement of acting vets will likely continue for a number of reasons. The sluggish pace of production because of last year’s writers’ strike and the specter of an actors’ strike has made it more difficult for agents to maintain the pricey salary quotes that longtime clients have grown accustomed to receiving. That makes stars receptive to courtship and the chance for some fresh entrepreneurial energy from a rival agent. As evidenced by Mickey Rourke’s Golden Globes win for “The Wrestler,” an actor with a long resume can change his fortunes with one strong performance.

In the first major television acquisition of 2009, Sony Pictures TV has purchased Michael Davies’ company Embassy Row. The deal, which had been in the works for about an year, comes on the heels of Davies’ three-year overall pact at SPT that recently came to an end.

STRIKE NEWS/LABOR ISSUES

In the last two days, the Screen Actors Guild has been full of sound and fury, signifying … the status quo. After a filibuster-filled 30-hour board meeting Monday and Tuesday that was meant to bring some resolution to the raging divisions within the guild, nothing has changed: Though moderates have a majority on the SAG board, the stall tactics prevented a vote on a measure that would have ousted Doug Allen as chief negotiator, canceled the strike authorization vote and replaced the negotiating committee. The outcome is 180 degrees from info leaked Monday evening by SAG board members — notably Seymour Cassel — and printed in half a dozen major news outlets, including Daily Variety. It’s not clear whether the leak was misinformation or a mistake by Cassel, but the conflict underlines the disarray and the warring factions within the guild.

NEW GRAPHIC NOVELS

ZOMBIE COP (Image Comics): Joe Mundy is a doomed cop, desperately clinging to the last vestiges of his humanity before the virus that infected his town turns him into zombie as well! Will he have enough time to solve the mystery of what caused the virus before he succumbs to his horrific fate? Alternately humorous, horrific, and tragic, Zombie Cop will leave you questioning just what it means to be…human.

LOCKE AND KEY: HEAD GAMES #1 (IDW): In the first issue of Locke & Key: Head Games, Professor Joe Ridgeway has one look at Lovecraft Academy’s newest transfer student, the charismatic Zack Wells, and is seized with an unsettling notion: that young Wells is in fact the ghost of Lucas Caravaggio, a teenager who disappeared over twenty years before, along with several other students, and who has long been presumed dead. Joe soon sets out to dig up the truth on the new kid… with no idea how far Zack Wells is willing to go to keep his secrets buried.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #583 (Marvel Comics): To celebrate the upcoming Presidential inauguration of Barack Obama, this all-new story takes place in Washington, D.C. on Inauguration Day and finds one of Spider-Man’s oldest foes attempting to thwart the swearing in ceremony of the 44th President of the United States.

WEBSITE TO WATCH

http://www.tv.com/

What’s in a URL? CBS Interactive intends to find out as it repositions this TV listings site it got through its acquisition of CNET into a video viewing destination to rival the likes of Hulu, Fancast and Joost. CBS announced deals with Endemol USA, MGM, PBS, Showtime and Sony Pictures Television, each of which will contribute full ad-supported episodes of shows to the portal. Add these catalogs to the shows from the CBS vaults including classics such as Bewitched and T.J. Hooker and you have a portal to that is bound to attract attention. The problem is none of TV.com’s content is really exclusive. The site will have to distinguish itself by offering a superior user interface, interactive features and other resources not found elsewhere. The new TV.com looks very similar to Hulu at first glance, featuring lots of white space and a visual banner up top to highlight a rotating selection of shows. There’s already some nice interactive features here as well, including a microblogging discussion tool akin to Twitter. Users can also rate episodes, write reviews and cross reference cast and crew information from the TV.com database. It’s just so late in the game to try and carve out a loyal TV-centric user base.