Studios turn to books, magazines
April 17, 2008
Feature development execs were bracing for a deluge of feature spec scripts to flood the market after the 100-day writers strike wrapped in mid-February. But the storm, if it’s brewing at all, has yet to hit, so the majors are chasing after books and magazine articles harder than they have in years.
Warner Bros. acquired “The Lost Girls,” an 87-page proposal by Amanda Pressner, Jennifer Baggett and Holly Corbett, who gave up their media jobs and boyfriends to travel the world for a year, blogging every step of the way. The book will be published by HarperCollins.
DreamWorks has acquired “Deep Sea Cowboy,” an article that Joshua Davis wrote in the March issue of Wired, for a feature to be produced by “Transformers” and “Star Trek” scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci; Pete Chiarelli exec produces. Article revolved around Rich Habib, who runs Titan Salvage, which races all over the world to salvage sinking giant ships and their cargo.
WB also bought “The Rapture,” an upcoming novel by British author Liz Jensen that will be published in the U.S. by Random House. Novel is about a peculiar young girl with the ability to predict natural disasters who teams with her psychologist and a physicist to stop an offshore drilling project off the coast of Florida that the girl is convinced will cause an apocalyptic earthquake.
Miramax has optioned Wall Street Journal article “The Heart Has Its Reasons,” by Kevin Helliker, for Mandalay to produce. It’s the story of an unlikely romance between 27-year old convicted murderer John Manard and Toby Young, a 48-year-old social worker who was a married mother of two when she smuggled Manard out of prison. They ran away together with $42,000 of her retirement money before they were caught in a cabin in Tennessee.
Scott Rudin dipped into his own funds to make a preemptive acquisition of “Indignation,” the Philip Roth novel to be published in September by Houghton Mifflin.
Via Variety
Atlantis Rising at DreamWorks
April 16, 2008
DreamWorks has optioned the rights to Platinum Studios’ comic book “Atlantis Rising” for a live-action feature adaptation to be produced by studio-based Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. Platinum chairman and CEO Scott Mitchell Rosenberg also will produce.
Created by Rosenberg, “Atlantis” is a five-part miniseries first published by Platinum Studios Comics in November. The fifth and final installment in the series, written by Scott O. Brown and drawn by Tim Irwin and Andy Elder, is due on comic book shelves in late April.
In “Atlantis,” seismic disturbances at sea force world militaries to investigate the deepest part of the world’s ocean, where an underground civilization emerges to wage war with planet Earth.
Via HR
DreamWorks to make ‘Ghost in the Shell’ in 3-D
April 15, 2008
Spielberg fights for rights to Japanese thriller — DreamWorks has acquired rights to the Japanese manga “Ghost in the Shell” with plans to adapt the futuristic police thriller as a 3-D live-action feature. - Via Variety
DreamWorks preps spy thriller
April 10, 2008
Andrea Berloff, who demonstrated a talent for dramatizing real-life events with her screenplay for Oliver Stone’s “World Trade Center,” is entering the cloak-and-dagger world of the CIA. DreamWorks is in negotiations to acquire an untitled spy thriller from Berloff that is based on the true story of two spies in the upper levels of the intelligence agency. Kevin Misher is producing, with Christy Fletcher serving as exec producer.
Via HR
DreamWorks goes ‘Hereafter’
March 28, 2008
In a seven-figure deal, DreamWorks has acquired “Hereafter,” a spec thriller by “Frost/Nixon” and “The Queen” scribe Peter Morgan. Kathleen Kennedy will produce through Kennedy/Marshall. The deal was a low-seven-figure advance against multiple million dollars if the film gets made. Thriller, which Morgan wrote before he got an Oscar nomination for “The Queen,” is in the vein of “The Sixth Sense.”
Via Variety
The Break-up?
March 27, 2008
If the Paramount and DreamWorks sides don’t soon resolve their rocky relationship, one that has played out messily in the public eye over matters of proper credit and respect, they may have to figure things out project by project, reliving any breakup a hundred times over.
Via NYTimes
DreamWorks orders ‘C.O.D.’
March 23, 2008
DreamWorks has preemptively purchased Lars Jacobson’s “C.O.D.” action-thriller spec and set it up with Barry Josephson of Josephson Entertainment and Neal Flaherty of Royal Prospect. Story centers on a New York City bike messenger who becomes a puppet in an assassin’s deadly game, forced to deliver bombs to save his family’s life. A female FBI agent with a vendetta against the villain must work outside the system to catch the messenger and solve the case before it takes on global implications.
Via Variety
DreamWorks Monsters VS Aliens Site Launched
March 19, 2008
I haven’t been a big fan of DreamWorks animated stuff, but this is the first project in a long time where I’m slightly curious. Check out their shiny new Monsters VS Aliens site.
Cast set for ‘Monsters vs. Aliens’
March 11, 2008
Reese Witherspoon, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Seth Rogen, Rainn Wilson, Stephen Colbert, Kiefer Sutherland and Paul Rudd have signed on to lend their voices to DreamWorks Animation’s “Monsters vs. Aliens.” “Monsters vs. Aliens” is scheduled to bow March 27, 2009.
Via Variety
DreamWorks’ Katzenberg betting big on 3-D
March 11, 2008
“Clearly I’m putting my money where my mouth is and the company’s bet on it,” said Katzenberg in an interview at his headquarters a day before making his pitch to movie exhibitors in Las Vegas at the annual ShoWest conference.
DreamWorks’ 3-D initiative, using proprietary technology and processes, has been in the works for about 18 months and will make its theatrical debut on March 27, 2009 with “Monsters vs. Aliens.”
Via Reuters
DreamWorks says no to Blu-ray. But who really wants to see Bee Movie in hi-def?
March 1, 2008
“DreamWorks Animation said yesterday it still had an exclusive deal with Toshiba to distribute its movies on HD DVD, and until Toshiba gave it the go-ahead, it would not begin offering movies in Blu-ray. DreamWorks will be releasing Bee Movie in March on HD DVD.”
Via Betanews