Richard LaGravenese is directing PS, I LOVE YOU for Warner Bros. Pictures. Wendy Finerman is producing. Based on the novel by Cecilia Ahern, the story centers on a grieving young widow who discovers that her late husband has left her a list of tasks revealed in 10 messages, delivered anonymously, intended to ease her out of grief and transition her to a new life. Steve Rogers is adapting the novel.
Ed Zwick is in talks with Columbia Pictures to direct, produce and co-write the romantic comedy HAPPY ENDINGS. Details on the story line are being kept under wraps. Zwick's Bedford Falls partner Marshall Herskovitz will co-write and produce the project with Zwick.
Stone Village Pictures has optioned the rights to James Ellroy's recently published collection of stories DESTINATION: MORGUE! L.A. TALES. Ellroy will adapt the material. The book encompasses 14 pieces, some fictional and some based on real-life incidents about Los Angeles and includes three novellas that focus on a tough-skinned LAPD cop who is assigned to a case involving a famous actress being stalked.
Tim McCann is set to helm a remake of the 1946 film ANGEL ON MY SHOULDER for T.H.E.M.E. Entertainment about a mobster who has a few days to redeem himself. The film will be produced by Todd Baker, who also has written the screenplay.
Charles Sturridge will write and direct LASSIE for Odyssey Entertainment, Classic Media and Firstsight Films. Shooting starts in England, Scotland and the Isle of Man in the spring. The remake of 1943's LASSIE COME HOME is the tale of the collie who, on the eve of WWII, lives with the hardworking family of 9-year-old Joe Carraclough in Yorkshire. When the local mine is closed down and Joe's father loses his job, the boy is forced to sell Lassie to the mine's wealthy owner. Taken 500 miles away to the duke's remote castle in Scotland, Lassie frees herself and sets out for home.
Moonstone and Tobe Hooper have launched TH Nightmare, a venture that will produce, market and distribute horror and thriller genre films. Hooper will direct two of the initial films, including the first, MARKED. Written by scribes Jace Anderson and Adam Gierasch (THE TOOLBOX MURDERS), it's the story of an LAPD detective who discovers that Japanese demons are involved in a series of brutal murders.
Columbia Pictures has purchased the comic pitch CONFESSIONS OF A LITTLE LEAGUE COACH with Robbie Fox (SO I MARRIED AN AXE MURDERER) set to write the script and Jonathan Mostow to direct. Story concerns a father with a weak past who tries to redeem himself by coaching his son's Little League team, only to find himself unable to resist when in scoring position with his players' gorgeous moms.
Stephen Susco (THE GRUDGE) will pen DIBBUK BOX for Ghost House Pictures. Story is a fictional retelling of L.A. Times writer Leslie Gornstein's article "Jinx in a Box," about an antique wooden box purchased on eBay that contained an evil spirit and was brought to America by a Holocaust survivor after WWII. The pic will center around a cursed relic containing mysterious familial tokens that is mistakenly purchased. The new owner must solve its mystery to save her own family.
Stuart Beattie (COLLATERAL) has been hired to adapt 30 DAYS OF NIGHT based on the comicbook series by Steve Niles. Pic is set in Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost town in the U.S. In the middle of winter there, the sun sets and does not rise for more than 30 days and nights. From the darkness comes an evil force that strikes terror on the town, and all hope is pinned on a husband-and-wife cop team. Ghost House Pictures and Senator Films are producing.
Andrew Kevin Walker (SEVEN) will write a remake of the gritty French crime thriller LE CONVOYEUR for Paramount Pictures. Original pic begins as a man drives with his son behind an armored car. When masked gunmen pull a heist on the vehicle, they open fire on the car behind them, killing the boy. Suspecting an inside job, the grieving father takes a job at the armored car company, bent on avenging his son's death.
Frank Cottrell Boyce will adapt Homer's THE ODYSSEY for producer David Heyman and Regency Enterprises. It's the epic tale of Odysseus and his 10-year journey home after the Trojan War, during which he is confronted by natural and supernatural threats including shipwrecks, battles, monsters and the sea god Poseidon. Heyman's version will have a different perspective.
Stevie Long (STARSKY & HUTCH) has penned an original action comedy script about a high school vice principal who is forced to rely on the ESPIONAGE FOR DUMMIES manual when his identity becomes crossed with that of a U.S. superspy. Armed only with the superspy version of the manual, he must try to save the world. Lion Rock Prods. has reached an agreement with Wiley, publisher of the FOR DUMMIES series, to create the project.
Jeff Nathanson (RUSH HOUR, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN) will rewrite the fourh INDIANA JONES installment for George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.
Carl Ellsworth will write SLEEPLESS KNIGHTS for DreamWorks and producer Don Murphy. It's based on the comicbook by Grant Morrision, in which a time-travel experiment gets the world stuck in Halloween night. It's up to four kids to defeat the evil in their town.
Peter Berg will direct THE KINGDOM for Universal and producer Michael Mann. Matthew Michael Carnahan has been set to writer the script. It's the story of a team of U.S. government officials who work with a Middle Eastern government to investigate a recent bombing. The film is based on an idea that was brought to the studio by Berg and Mann.
Michael Cooney (IDENTITY) will write ARGONAUTS for DreamWorks. Story takes place on the eve of WWII, when a group of treasure hunters think they've figured out the location of the fabled sunken ship of Jason and the Argonauts, a vessel whose contents are believed to contain the mythical Golden Fleece.
Ronny Yu has dropped out of New Line Cinema's SNAKES ON A PLANE and has been replaced by David Ellis (CELLULAR). Written by John Heffernan and David Loucka, pic is a thriller in which a witness to a mob hit must travel from Hawaii to the mainland to testify. Accompanying him on the flight is a crate of 250 poisonous snakes, which are to prevent the witness from getting to the trial.
Revolution Studios has picked up the romantic comedy MADE IN ITALY for Storyline Entertainment to produce with Sara Endsley on board to rewrite Julie Sherman's original script. The story centers on a female executive for a chain of gourmet food stores who travels to Italy and falls in love with the handsome Italian olive oil producer with whom she is hoping to close an important business deal. However, before putting pen to paper, she must win over his very traditional family, including his overbearing mother, who still runs his life and who immediately dislikes her.
John Curran will direct FIVE DOLLARS A DAY for New Line Cinema. Written by Neal H. Dobrofsky and Tippi Dobrofsky, the pic revolves around a son who is forced to reunite with his con artist father for a cross-country odyssey.
Larry Gross (48 HOURS) is set to write and direct NOTHING COMPARES TO YOU for Beverly Hills Film Studios. Principal photography is set to begin early next year. Beverly Hills Film Studios will produce.
Miguel Arteta is set to direct the DreamWorks comedy DATE SCHOOL, written by Abby Cohn and Mark Silverstein, about a woman who's unlucky in love and turns to a dating instructor for help. Red Hour Films is producing, along with Firm Films.
Simon Beaufoy (THE FULL MONTY) will write the romantic comedy IT'S NOT YOU, IT'S ME for Paramount and Guy Walks Into A Bar. It's about a man in his late 20s who's unaware of his personal deficiencies in romantic pursuits. He assembles former girlfriends to explain his lack of success, passes out and decides to make himself over in pursuit of an ideal woman, only to discover he no longer likes his new self and has fallen in love with another woman.
Revolution Studios has acquired rights to remake the 1980 John Carpenter horror film THE FOG. Cooper Layne (THE CORE) will write the script for producers Carpenter, Debra Hill and David Foster.
Patricia Cardoso (REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES) will direct THE JANE PLAN for Walt Disney Pictures. Penned by John Strauss, Ed Decter, Ron Burch and David Kidd, the film follows a powerful real estate magnate who does everything in his power to win back his assistant when she quits before his biggest deal ever.
Michael Chabon will write SNOW AND THE SEVEN, a retelling of SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS for Disney. Yuen Wo Ping will direct. Original draft of script was written by Josh Harman and Scott Elder; this version will be a retelling of SNOW WHITE with a martial arts/Chinese fantasy twist.
The son of Akira Kurosawa will make his feature directorial debut from an unfinished script by his late father. Hisao Kurosawa will complete the script, whose working title is ONI. It's about a blond-haired samurai's struggle to discover his destiny in 16th- century Japan.
Jeff Roda (LOVE LIZA) is writing THE SIEGE OF FULTON AVENUE, a film based on the New York magazine article by David Amsden. Contrafilm is producing for DreamWorks. Pic will be based on the real-life standoff between police officers in Westchester County, N.Y., and a house full of partying teens.
Wes Anderson will co-write with Noah Baumbach and direct Roald Dahl's THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX as a stop-motion animated feature for Revolution Studios. The book tells the story of a crafty fox who finds himself and his family targeted for death by the three dumb, plug-ugly farmers who tire of sharing their chickens with the critter.
