April was a strong month for writers. Voltage Productions and Chris Morgan Productions are teaming to produce Luke Paradise’s action/mystery spec The Prodigal. The feature follows a soldier who returns home to investigate his estranged brother’s death. Universal has picked up Todd Rosenberg’s drama spec All My Life. The script follows the true story of Solomon Chau and Jennifer Carter, an engaged couple who raise money to fund the wedding of their dreams after Chau is diagnosed with liver cancer. Melissa Stack’s untitled comedy spec, about an older woman who goes on vacation with her much-younger boyfriend’s family, has found a home at Twentieth Century Fox. Stack will also direct. Sony and Immersive Pictures are moving forward with Noah Griffith and Daniel Stewart’s Fragment. The sci-fi/thriller, based on Griffith and Stewart’s 2015 short, follows a crashed Air Force pilot who follows a mysterious radio beacon to discover something not of this Earth.
Other script sales include:
– M. Night Shyamalan to write/direct Glass for Universal, Blumhouse, and Blinding Edge. The movie will serve a dual sequel to Shyamalan’s Unbreakable and Split.
– After landing on 2016’s Black List, Elyse Hollander’s Madonna biopic Blonde Ambition has found a home at Universal, with Brett Ratner producing.
– Summit Entertainment and Atomic Monster are signed on to produce Brad Keene’s thriller Smart House. Not to be confused with the Katey Sagal–starring TV movie, this Smart House is based on an idea from James Wan and will follow a family in witness protection whose smart house goes into self-defense mode when assassins strike. Wan to produce, and Alexandre Aja to direct.
– Philip Gawthorne set to write Universal’s adaptation of Chrononauts, a comic book series created by Mark Millar and Sean Gordon Murphy.
– James Gunn will write/direct the third movie in his Guardians of the Galaxy series for Disney and Marvel.
– John Ridley to write/direct A Needle in a Timestack, a sci-fi/time travel drama based on Robert Silverberg’s short story, for Miramax.
– The Jim Henson Company and Tristar have tapped Jay Basu and Fede Alvarez for the spinoff/remake of the 1986 masterpiece Labyrinth. Alvarez to direct, and Basu to write from a story by him and Alvarez.
– Universal picked up Night School from Kevin Hart, Matthew Kellard, Harry Ratchford, Joey Wells and Nick Stoller. Hart came up with the idea and will also star/produce. Tim Story in talks to direct.