Elston Gunn's WEEKLY SCRIPT REPORT (Major Sales, Events, and other News!)
March 10th, 2001
- Geoff Reeve Films picked up the feature rights to the Hollywood novel SILENT EXTRAS by Arnon Grunberg. It's about three pals from Amsterdam who devise a scheme to become Hollywood stars.
- Jesse Wigutow (URBAN TOWNIE, SEARED) sold his drama pitch SILICON ALLEY to New Line Cinema as a possible vehicle for Brad Pitt. The story centers on a business school graduate who joins an investment banking firm, completes a large IPO for an Internate mogul, is drawn into their glamorous world and finds himself a pawn controlled by his mentor.
- Revolution acquired an untitled pitch by Steven Rogers about a
cross-country road trip taken by an IRS auditor, his surly 13-year old son, a 75-year old woman and her guardian angel.
- Deep River Prods. bought Kyle Long's comedy script THE MILLION DOLLAR FAN about a mechanic whose life gets a jolt when he gets the opportunity to win a million dollars by kicking a field goal at a football half-time show.
- Jason Filardi will write the screeplay THE UNDERSTUDY for Hyde Park Entertainment about a desperate actor who accepts two simultaneous understudy jobs and hilarity hijinks ensue when both leads fall ill.
- Columbia picked up Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry's drama TICK-TOCK about an amnesiac who wakes up in the custody of the FBI as the prime suspect is a series of L.A. bombings. The studio may be looking at Danny Boyle to direct.
- New Concorde grabbed DREAM OF VENUS by Miles Beller. The story centers on the 1939 World's Fair in New York. Roger Corman will direct.
- Gregory Allen Howard (REMEMBER THE TITANS) will adapt for Bruckheimer Films journalist Gary Smith's article "Higher Education," which was published in the March 5 issue of Sports Illustrated magazine. It tells the true story of the late Perry Reese Jr., a black basketball coach who coached at an all-white Amish high school in Ohio during the 1980s and 90s, taking the team through a championship season.
- Marc Klein (upcoming SERENDIPITY) will adapt the short stories "The Worst Thing a Suburban Girl Could Imagine" and "My Old Man" into a feature that Reese Witherspoon will star in and produce for Catch 23 Entertainment. The stories are featured in Melissa Banks' best-selling short-story collection THE GIRLS' GUIDE TO HUNTING AND FISHING about a young woman's journey through the New York publishing world while her father battles a terminal illness.
- Disney picked up Joanna Johnson's romantic comedy pitch, THE BOY'S CLUB, where the lead man and woman swap personalities. Lawrence Bender will produce.
- Richard Jefferies sold COLD CREEK MANOR, a contemporary thriller pitch about a family that moves to the country, only to discover their dreams shattered when the previous property owner returns from prison to demand his house back. Disney bought the pitch.
- Landscape Entertainment is developing a time-travel romantic comedy based on two interconnected novellas, 40 COUNTING DOWN and 21 COUNTING UP, by sci-fi writer Harry Turtledove. They revolve around Justin Kloster, a software designer whose wife divorces him. He travels back in time two decades to 1999, when they began dating, to confront his younger self. The first novella is told from the standpoint of the older Justin, the second from the younger Justin.
- 20th Century Fox grabbed the comedy pitch NOTHING UP MY SLEEVE by Jack Flynn for the Farrelly brothers to produce. It centers on a down-and-out magician who accidentally gains real magical powers though has difficulties controlling them. Flynn will write the script.
THE UNDERSTUDY sounds like a perfect opportunity for slapstick, but COLD CREEK MANOR just sounds like it could be cool -- cool enough to be my pick of the week. Hope they make it nice and creepy. Rural areas can be such a great setting for quality horror pics.
-- Elston Gunn
(Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, Variety)
- Jesse Wigutow (URBAN TOWNIE, SEARED) sold his drama pitch SILICON ALLEY to New Line Cinema as a possible vehicle for Brad Pitt. The story centers on a business school graduate who joins an investment banking firm, completes a large IPO for an Internate mogul, is drawn into their glamorous world and finds himself a pawn controlled by his mentor.
- Revolution acquired an untitled pitch by Steven Rogers about a
cross-country road trip taken by an IRS auditor, his surly 13-year old son, a 75-year old woman and her guardian angel.
- Deep River Prods. bought Kyle Long's comedy script THE MILLION DOLLAR FAN about a mechanic whose life gets a jolt when he gets the opportunity to win a million dollars by kicking a field goal at a football half-time show.
- Jason Filardi will write the screeplay THE UNDERSTUDY for Hyde Park Entertainment about a desperate actor who accepts two simultaneous understudy jobs and hilarity hijinks ensue when both leads fall ill.
- Columbia picked up Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry's drama TICK-TOCK about an amnesiac who wakes up in the custody of the FBI as the prime suspect is a series of L.A. bombings. The studio may be looking at Danny Boyle to direct.
- New Concorde grabbed DREAM OF VENUS by Miles Beller. The story centers on the 1939 World's Fair in New York. Roger Corman will direct.
- Gregory Allen Howard (REMEMBER THE TITANS) will adapt for Bruckheimer Films journalist Gary Smith's article "Higher Education," which was published in the March 5 issue of Sports Illustrated magazine. It tells the true story of the late Perry Reese Jr., a black basketball coach who coached at an all-white Amish high school in Ohio during the 1980s and 90s, taking the team through a championship season.
- Marc Klein (upcoming SERENDIPITY) will adapt the short stories "The Worst Thing a Suburban Girl Could Imagine" and "My Old Man" into a feature that Reese Witherspoon will star in and produce for Catch 23 Entertainment. The stories are featured in Melissa Banks' best-selling short-story collection THE GIRLS' GUIDE TO HUNTING AND FISHING about a young woman's journey through the New York publishing world while her father battles a terminal illness.
- Disney picked up Joanna Johnson's romantic comedy pitch, THE BOY'S CLUB, where the lead man and woman swap personalities. Lawrence Bender will produce.
- Richard Jefferies sold COLD CREEK MANOR, a contemporary thriller pitch about a family that moves to the country, only to discover their dreams shattered when the previous property owner returns from prison to demand his house back. Disney bought the pitch.
- Landscape Entertainment is developing a time-travel romantic comedy based on two interconnected novellas, 40 COUNTING DOWN and 21 COUNTING UP, by sci-fi writer Harry Turtledove. They revolve around Justin Kloster, a software designer whose wife divorces him. He travels back in time two decades to 1999, when they began dating, to confront his younger self. The first novella is told from the standpoint of the older Justin, the second from the younger Justin.
- 20th Century Fox grabbed the comedy pitch NOTHING UP MY SLEEVE by Jack Flynn for the Farrelly brothers to produce. It centers on a down-and-out magician who accidentally gains real magical powers though has difficulties controlling them. Flynn will write the script.
THE UNDERSTUDY sounds like a perfect opportunity for slapstick, but COLD CREEK MANOR just sounds like it could be cool -- cool enough to be my pick of the week. Hope they make it nice and creepy. Rural areas can be such a great setting for quality horror pics.
-- Elston Gunn
(Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, Variety)
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