Comedy is in the air for the fall. October brought us a few major sales, including Dan Goor’s El Presidente, acquired by Warner Brothers and focusing on an “overly-committed Secret Service agent who is assigned to guard the country’s worst former president, a bumbling sleaze” after someone threatens to kill the ex-president. In non-comedy sales, writer/director Olatunde Osunsanmi sold his sci-fi spec Dark Moon to Warner Brothers in the high six figures. Also looks like a sequel to Top Gun is in the works, as well as a remake of Hellraiser and an adaptation of The Twilight Zone.
Other sales include:
–Take My Wife: a guy tries to get out of paying alimony to his ex-wife by finding her a new husband, which backfires once he falls back in love with her. Written by Greg Coolidge & Kirk Ward. Tyler Perry and Dwayne Johnson attached to star.
–Finally an adaptation of another comic strip: Bill Keane’s Family Circus will have a big screen version. Sadly, the world still waits for Pearls Before Swine’s day in the theaters.
–Across the pond, British production company Warp Films has purchased The Organ Grinder’s Monkey from Jake and Dinos Chapman. A talented talking chimp outshines a struggling artist. Daniel Craig, Kevin Spacey, and Rosamund Pike star.
–In the vein of other highly successful Christopher Columbus films (the explorer, not the director), McG is set to produce a film about Columbus’ discovery of America—300 style.
–Seth MacFarlane is attached to co-write, direct, and star in Ted, an R-rated buddy comedy about a guy whose teddy bear comes to life. Mark Wahlberg attached to star.