Elston Gunn's WEEKLY SCRIPT REPORT (Major Sales, Events, and other News!)
February 16th, 2001
- Ross Klavan (TIGERLAND) will write the thriller DARK FIELDS, based on the Alan Glynn novel, for Miramax Films. It's about a New York writer who finds a drug that makes him smart, successful and rich, but his life falls apart when he runs out of it. Klavan is also working on Paramount's WITHOUT REMORSE, an adaptation of the Tom Clancy novel, as well as WITHIN RANGE for Miramax.
- MGM is in final talks to buy THE BROTHERS GRIMM, written by Ehren Kruger (SCREAM 3, ARLINGTON ROAD), which follows Jacob and Willem Grimm who must investigate a haunted forest where girls have been disappearing.
- Rogue Pictures sold an original pitch, THE VIAGRA PROJECT, to Working Title Films for Tom Benedict (COCOON) to script. It's follows a doctor who is trying to find a cure for angina, but instead cures erectile dysfunction.
- Spyglass Entertainment has purchased the comedy pitch BALLS OF FURY from writers Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, who'll write the script. It's loosely inspired by the 1973 Bruce Lee pic ENTER THE DRAGON, but centers on pingpong.
- Thompson Evans sold his romantic comedy spec WEDLOCK to Escape Artists. It's about a troubled married couple and their visits to an uncoventional marriage counselor, who has them execute a series of strange exercises to bring them closer.
- Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal have sold their comedy pitch MEMPHISTO to the Canton Co. and Senator Entertainment AG. It's about a hypnotist who is out for revenge on a TV weatherman who used to tortue him when they were in high school.
- Warner Bros. has picked up two projects for Steven Soderbergh's and George Clooney's Section Eight company. The first is the upcoming novel THE GOOD GERMAN, an epic love story/murder mystery set in 1945 Berlin. The other is an untitled pitch by Duncan Brantley about an undercover moonshine cop, set in North Carolina in the late 1950s.
- Gigi Levangie Grazer (STEPMOM) sold her novel RESCUE ME to Fox Searchlight as directing vehicle for Carl Franklin. The book is set in 1980s Hollywood and centers on a woman trying to break into the business, working for a talk show and getting her romantic life together while looking after her nephew from her junkie brother.
- Fox 2000 has purchased an untitled comedy pitch from Dennis Bartok and Tom Abrams, who will script the project for Team Todd. It's set in 1850 and follows a young Boston woman who travels across the sea to Africa to rescue her husband, though she falls for the ship's captain on the way.
- Marshall Todd sold his urban horror screenplay WEREWOLF to Phoenix Pictures for Dario Piana to direct. It's about a mysterious blues man who rids the Earth of werewolves. The last werewolf lives in the Hollywood Hills among the rich and drug-addicted.
It's hard to believe a lot of scripts are being sold with the threatening strikes ahead. DARK FIELDS, BROTHER'S GRIMM, THE VIAGRA PROJECT and THE GOOD GERMAN sound nice. For some reason I'm really drawn to the premise of a moonshine cop in 1950s North Carolina. And if Clooney and Soderbergh are involved, that increases my interest even more.
-- Elston Gunn
(Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, Variety)
- MGM is in final talks to buy THE BROTHERS GRIMM, written by Ehren Kruger (SCREAM 3, ARLINGTON ROAD), which follows Jacob and Willem Grimm who must investigate a haunted forest where girls have been disappearing.
- Rogue Pictures sold an original pitch, THE VIAGRA PROJECT, to Working Title Films for Tom Benedict (COCOON) to script. It's follows a doctor who is trying to find a cure for angina, but instead cures erectile dysfunction.
- Spyglass Entertainment has purchased the comedy pitch BALLS OF FURY from writers Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, who'll write the script. It's loosely inspired by the 1973 Bruce Lee pic ENTER THE DRAGON, but centers on pingpong.
- Thompson Evans sold his romantic comedy spec WEDLOCK to Escape Artists. It's about a troubled married couple and their visits to an uncoventional marriage counselor, who has them execute a series of strange exercises to bring them closer.
- Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal have sold their comedy pitch MEMPHISTO to the Canton Co. and Senator Entertainment AG. It's about a hypnotist who is out for revenge on a TV weatherman who used to tortue him when they were in high school.
- Warner Bros. has picked up two projects for Steven Soderbergh's and George Clooney's Section Eight company. The first is the upcoming novel THE GOOD GERMAN, an epic love story/murder mystery set in 1945 Berlin. The other is an untitled pitch by Duncan Brantley about an undercover moonshine cop, set in North Carolina in the late 1950s.
- Gigi Levangie Grazer (STEPMOM) sold her novel RESCUE ME to Fox Searchlight as directing vehicle for Carl Franklin. The book is set in 1980s Hollywood and centers on a woman trying to break into the business, working for a talk show and getting her romantic life together while looking after her nephew from her junkie brother.
- Fox 2000 has purchased an untitled comedy pitch from Dennis Bartok and Tom Abrams, who will script the project for Team Todd. It's set in 1850 and follows a young Boston woman who travels across the sea to Africa to rescue her husband, though she falls for the ship's captain on the way.
- Marshall Todd sold his urban horror screenplay WEREWOLF to Phoenix Pictures for Dario Piana to direct. It's about a mysterious blues man who rids the Earth of werewolves. The last werewolf lives in the Hollywood Hills among the rich and drug-addicted.
It's hard to believe a lot of scripts are being sold with the threatening strikes ahead. DARK FIELDS, BROTHER'S GRIMM, THE VIAGRA PROJECT and THE GOOD GERMAN sound nice. For some reason I'm really drawn to the premise of a moonshine cop in 1950s North Carolina. And if Clooney and Soderbergh are involved, that increases my interest even more.
-- Elston Gunn
(Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, Variety)
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