Script Pipeline

Brian Grazer, Alex Kurtzman, and Robert Orci have optioned a dozen Anne Rice novels, including Interview with a Vampire, to be adapted into a series The Vampire Chronicles with Universal. Stan Lee’s idea Apollo Rising will be combined with the February spec sale Eternal by Victoria Aveyard. Two projects set on space colonies are in the pipeline: Out of this World by Allan Loeb and Moonfall by David Weil. In the comedy world, Relativity picked up All Day and a Night, a pitch by Jonathan Goldstein & John Francis Daley (Horrible Bosses), and Hyde Park optioned Peter Hoare’s Killing Hasselhoff. . . Ken Jeong, David Hasselhoff, and Hulk Hogan to star. The Lonely Island is also getting a movie. Other script sales include: – Frozen and Wreck-It Ralph‘s Jennifer Lee to adapt A Wrinkle in Time. – Katharine Hepburn, The Three Tenors, and some Brazilian hitman who killed 492 people are getting biopics. – Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, and Tom Hardy producing an animal trafficking film….

Adaptations, spin-offs, sequels. . . source material dominated in July, with Skull Island spinning off from King Kong and a live-action Dumbo moving forward. WB picked up Anne McCaffrey’s fantasy series Dragonriders of Pern and classic arcade game Space Invaders. Mike Tyson and Shel Silverstein are getting their own biopics as well. On the original script front: Diablo Run by Shea and Evan Mirzai, a Blacklist project, has found a home at Atmosphere Entertainment. Matthew Kennedy, repped by Energy Entertainment’s Brooklyn Weaver, sold A Man Called Death, and country singer Miranda Lambert will star in Something in the Water. Other script sales include: – The sequels Enchanted 2, G.I. Joe 3, and Last Vegas 2 are all moving forward with new writers attached. – Quentin Tarantino un-cancelled his western The Hateful Eight. – Will Ferrell and Adam McKay to produce Manimal adaptation for Sony. – Steve Carell producing Brooklyn Family Robinson, based on an idea by David Reynolds, Charlie Hartsock, and Vance Degeneres.

A somewhat slower month. . . . In true retro fashion, Dreamworks developing an animated Felix the Cat film. Even more retro: Medusa, another animated comedy coming from Sony Pictures. Wasting no time at all, as the news of his release broke less than a month ago, Bowe Bergdahl’s story will become a feature in America’s Last Prisoner of War. Fox Searchlight taking the helm. Will Smith set to star in the as-of-yet untitled NFL concussion project, bringing to light the injuries sustained by ex-football players. And Oliver Stone writing/directing a film about the notorious Edward Snowden. Other script sales include: – Featuring an all-female Delta Force, the action/thriller The Athena Project, based on the novel by Brad Thor. MMA fighter Ronda Rousey attached to star. – A remake of the 1980s thriller War Games is back on track. – Ken Jeong will star in the political road comedy (yes,…

Script Pipeline Screenwriting Competition winner Evan Daugherty (Divergent) will write and direct an adaptation of the of the supernatural thriller Ink and Bone. Lee Clay (Beautiful Boy) to produce with The Weinstein Company and Dimension Films. Quvenzhane Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild) might have another shot at an Oscar nom in the teen drama Counting By 7’s. And continuing the epic parade of sequels: My Big Fat Greek Wedding, World War Z, Independence Day, Spring Breakers, Mission: Impossible, V/H/S, and The Bourne Legacy. That’s a lot for one month. Other script sales include: – Based on a Salon.com article, the self-explanatory romantic comedy The Craziest OkCupid Date Ever. Offspring Entertainment producing. – Because it’s never too early for a LeBron James biopic: a story about his days as a top high school basketball player. Terence Winter (Boardwalk Empire) co-producing. – Will Ferrell co-producing an animated feature of The Flintstones….

It took a while, about 20 years to be exact, but Robin Williams as Mrs. Doubtfire will grace a new generation of audiences in need of a great family (well, family-ish) comedy. Tripp Vinson (Vinson Films) to produce the Universal sci-fi project Terrestrial. Still in its early stages: Brian Grazer co-producing a film about Dodgers star Yasiel Puig’s escape from Cuba to become one of the biggest sensations in baseball. Flash Gordon and Barbie will get adaptations–probably no crossover movie any time soon. And the multi-talented Ellen Page will (thankfully) star in an action movie, Queen and Country. Other script sales include: – Legendary actor John Cleese makes a return to the screen in the spy comedy The B Team. – Masters of the Universe, a draft of which was previously written by Script Pipeline contest winner Evan Daugherty, still moving forward in development with Sony. – Battlestar Galactica made…