Fun THE DEVELOPMENT HELL THREAD: Where Abandoned Movie Projects Go to Die!

[Doctor Omega]

“Wick” Helmer To Direct “Kill or Be Killed”



“Wick” Helmer To Direct “Kill or Be Killed”


“John Wick Vol. 2” director Chad Stahelski will re-team with the franchise’s producer Basil Iwanyk for “Kill or Be Killed,” an adaptation of the Ed Brubaker comic.

The story follows a depressed college student who attempts suicide. He survives due to unlikely events but is soon visited by a demon who explains that he was the one who spared the student’s life.

But there’s a price to be paid: Going forward, the young man will be allowed to live one month for every person he kills.

Dan Casey is attached to write the script. Erica Lee (“Wind River”) and Jeff Waxman (“mother!”) also produce.

The darkly twisted story of a young man forced to kill bad people, and how he struggles to keep his secret as it slowly begins to ruin his life and the lives of his friends and loved ones. Both a thriller and a deconstruction of vigilantism, KILL OR BE KILLED is unlike anything this award-winning team has done before.

 

[Doctor Omega]

Heartbreaker
“Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom” producer Anant Singh and Videovision Entertainment have acquired the film rights to James-Brent Styan’s biography “Heartbreaker” about Christiaan Barnard, the surgeon who performed the world’s first human-to-human heart transplant.

The story focuses on the impact of the pioneering surgery on Barnard’s personal life and South African society at large. The role of black medical staff including lab assistant Hamilton Naki and others is explored, as is the intense global rivalry that arose between other famous heart surgeons and Barnard. Today around 3,500 people undergo the surgery each year.

 

[Doctor Omega]

Look Out For The Fitzgerald-Trouts
Argent Pictures and Brigsby Bear producer 3311 Productions are teaming to develop, finance and produce a feature film adapted from Esta Spalding’s children’s book “Look Out For The Fitzgerald-Trouts”.

Former “Mad Men” writer/co-executive producer Semi Chellas is set to pen the screenplay which centers on a family of four kids who are living a contemporary Swiss Family Robinson dream on a tropical island. They set out to find themselves a home and end up saving the world.

 

[Gavin]

Meh

 

[ant-mac]

Meh

Exactly.

What a waste of an effort.

They won't even get close to the original with Murphy and Nolte.

 

[Gavin]

There are a lot of movies that were successful simply because they were the right story with the right cast at the right time. You can't repeat that as the Ghostbusters remake proved. Plus there's a lot of the humour from 48 Hours that simply couldn't be repeated now because it was fairly racist.

 

[Doctor Omega]

“Edge of Tomorrow 2” May Be Liman’s Next?





Fans of “Edge of Tomorrow” (aka. “Live. Die. Repeat”) will be happy to hear today that the follow-up to Doug Liman’s 2014 sci-fi action film starring Tom Cruise is finally looking like a real possibility after years of rumors.

Speaking with Collider at the Television Critics Association press tour, Liman was on hand to promote the YouTube series “Impulse” and has revealed scheduling issues have already been worked out – all that’s left now is to finish the script:

“We’re just working on the script… [We’re no longer working on scheduling issues], now it’s down to we have a window where we could go do it, and we’re frantically working on the script. It’s one of those movies that we’ll only go make if we love the script. It’s not one of those things where the studio is pushing us to make it and they don’t really care if it’s good or not.

If the movie happens, it will be because Emily Blunt, Tom Cruise and myself are passionate about making it, which is a great place to be. She doesn’t need this movie, he doesn’t need this movie, and I don’t need it. We’re gonna make it if we really believe in it. We have a story that the three of us love, so we’re working hard on the script… It has the possibility of being my next film.”

Christopher McQuarrie came up with the idea for the sequel while writers Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse penned the actual screenplay. Scheduling was said to be the biggest issue, but with that worked out – we’ll hopefully see it sooner rather than later.

Liman is currently in post-production on the sci-fi young adult adaptation “Chaos Walking” starring Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland which opens in very early 2019.

 

[Doctor Omega]

Henson, & Singleton Plan Emmett Till Film





Actress Taraji P. Henson and director John Singleton are teaming to develop a biopic about Emmett Till, the 14-year-old Chicago native boy who was tortured and murdered in Mississippi in 1955.

A 21-year-old white woman named Carolyn Bryant made incendiary claims about what Till said and did to her at a local grocery store, claims she admits she made up decades later.

Days later, Bryant’s husband gathered some friends, kidnapped Till and then savagely beat, tortured and murdered him. A jury acquitted the men, but photos of Till’s mutilated body were published in black publications across the country and helped spark the civil rights movement.

Henson will produce and star as Till’s mother, the woman who decided that her son’s funeral should have an open casket to show the world a terrifying glimpse at the hatred and cruelty that was put upon her boy.

Gregory Allen Howard (“Remember the Titans,” “Ali”) will write the script for the project which would be Singleton’s first film since 2011’s “Abduction”.

 

[chainsaw_metal1]

They should be careful, lest Trump supporters accuse them of race baiting. Still, I'm looking forward to this movie.

 

[Doctor Omega]

The “ROM” & “M.A.S.K.” Films Are Dead?





Two years ago Paramount announced plans for a joint cinematic universe featuring multiple franchises based on Hasbro Toys including “G.I. Joe,” “M.A.S.K.,” “Visionairies,” “ROM: Spaceknight” and “Micronauts”.

At the time a high profile writer’s room was assembled featuring the likes of Michael Chabon, Brian K. Vaughan, Akiva Goldsman, Joe Robert Cole, Nicole Perlman and the recently announced “The Flash” directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein.

Since then however? Nothing has really resulted from the endeavour. Speaking about their newest film “Game Night,” Daley and Goldstein tell IGN about what happened and how at least two of the properties – “ROM” and “M.A.S.K.” – are effectively dead:

“Those are probably not likely to see the light of day, unless they’re moving on separate from us. It’s a funny thing. We spent three weeks in a room with a lot of talented writers. We broke eleven or so movies and, I don’t know. It just kind of went into the vortex. There’s been some leadership changes at Paramount, so it’s hard to say. Nobody’s contacted us about those.

It was fun. It was a fun challenge to take these properties that were so barebones in any kind of a narrative and create a movie around them. You know, these little cheap, plastic things, and to give them a backstory was an exciting challenge.”

The movies were to be produced by Brian Goldner, Stephen Davis and Josh Feldman. For now, Paramount seems to be sticking only with its “Transformers” franchise and has the first spin-off of that series, “Bumblebee,” hitting in December.

 

[Doctor Omega]

The Chrysalis
Oddball Productions and the Gotham Group are teaming for a film based on Brendan Deneen’s horror novel “The Chrysalis”. The story follows a twentysomething couple who are forced out of New York City and buy an old house in the suburbs.

They make friends despite their worries about becoming boring suburbanites. But they also discover something growing in the basement, which begins to slowly destroy their lives.



and from the book blurb on Amazon.......


The dark side of “adulting” revealed in a spine-tingling, sardonic novel of suburban life gone very, very wrong.

Forced out of New York City by rising rents and gentrification, barely-employed millennials Tom and Jenny Decker--an artist and a personal trainer--luck into an amazingly affordable, completely furnished house in the New Jersey suburbs.

Jenny doesn't know there’s something hidden in the basement. Tom does. It soon has him in thrall.

The Deckers' lives are suddenly on an upswing: Tom gets a big-bucks corporate job. Jenny, pregnant, opens a small gym catering to moms-to-be. They make friends despite their worries about becoming boring suburbanites. Tom regularly visits the basement, where the thing scrambles his senses and heightens his emotions, making him feel like a Master of the Universe.

Every upswing has its peak. After that, comes the fall. Tom's is going to be hard and fast.

A fast-paced novel that combines chills, thrills, and a literal monster in the basement with commentary on love, marriage, and parenthood, The Chrysalis will entertain and frighten Millennials and Baby Boomers alike. No one ever really wants to grow up…but sometimes behaving like an adult is the only way to survive.

 

[Doctor Omega]

The book has not been released yet and has no cover, just the above blurb on Amazon for now. Not released until September this year, yet already optioned for a film. First time I have seen anything quite like that.

 

[Doctor Omega]

Ryan Reynolds To Produce The New “Clue”





Actor Ryan Reynolds has locked down a three-year, first look deal between his company Maximum Effort and 20th Century Fox. The first project on that list? A new adaptation of the board game “Clue”.

The Wrap reports that Reynolds’ company and Allspark Pictures will produce the film, based on the Hasbro board game. “Deadpool” scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick are in talks to pen the script.

A stone cold classic of the comedy genre, 1985’s previous film adaptation “Clue” has earned a massive cult following over the years and is considered one of the few successful film adaptations of a game or toy in this case “Clue” (aka. “Cluedo”). Jonathan Lynn directed and co-wrote the original with John Landis, while the cast included the likes of Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, Lesley Ann Warren and Eileen Brennan.

The film famously had three possible endings and different cinemas received different ones. All were included on the home video release. The producers involved say this is NOT a remake of the film, rather a new take on the game premise.

 

[Gavin]

I love this sort of whodunnit. A number of years ago Australia (and the UK too I think) had a weekly series based on Cluedo in which a regular cast of actors (playing the same characters but with a different story each week) performed a murder story in front of a live studio audience and at the end of each show the cast would come out on stage to be questioned by members of the audience with the goal to try to be the first solve the mystery. After that the cast would perform the final scene revealing the answer. It was a lot of fun and I even managed to work out the solution a couple of times in advance.

 

[Doctor Omega]

I used to love WHODUNNIT in the 1970's, hosted by Jon Pertwee.....

 

[Doctor Omega]

Beloved filmmaker Sam Raimi (“Evil Dead,” “Spider-Man”) is in negotiations to direct the big-budget film adaptation of Patrick Rothfuss’ contemporary fantasy trilogy “The Kingkiller Chronicle” for Lionsgate.

The books follow a pair of wandering performers on their adventures through the unique and startling world of Temerant, and the magically gifted young man who grows to be the most notorious wizard his world has ever seen. Lindsey Beer (“Transformers: The Last Knight”) is adapting the script based on the first book “The Name of the Wind”.

The film comes on top of a companion prequel TV series in development at Showtime which is set a full generation before the events of the books and film. “Hamilton” creator and multi-award winning actor, composer, rapper and writer Lin-Manuel Miranda will serve as creative producer and musical mastermind on both projects.

Miranda is expected to compose the original music and write the songs, and has the option to be involved in future stage productions as well.

 

[Doctor Omega]

“Despicable” Scribes Adapting “Birthright”





Universal Pictures has picked up the film rights to Joshua Williamson’s Image Comics series “Birthright” with plans to adapt it into a feature.

The story involves a family who, a year after their youngest son Mikey vanishes without a trace, are visited by a fully grown and Conan-like man claiming to be him.

This Mikey reveals in the year he was away that he was in a fantastical land called Terranos (where time moves quicker) and that he’s only been able to return home now that he has defeated the tyrannical God-King Lore in the other world.

Soon, more things from Terranos begin to make their way into the real world bringing magic and destruction.

“Despicable Me” writers Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio will pen the script for the film which “The Walking Dead” creator Robert Kirkman will produce alongside David Alpert, Bryan Furst, Sean Furst, and Jeb Brody.

 

[Doctor Omega]

McLaren To Helm “Cowboy Ninja Viking”





Michelle MacLaren (“Breaking Bad,” “Game of Thrones”) has been set to direct the comic adaptation “Cowboy Ninja Viking” at Universal Pictures. MacLaren reportedly beat out Jennifer Yuh Nelson (“Kung Fu Panda”) and Rick Famuyiwa (“Dope’) for the job.

The story involves a counter-intelligence unit that uses multiple personality disorder patients to create agents known as Triplets, referring to the three personalities the killers have.

When the agents become rogue hired guns, the deadliest Triplet of all – the Cowboy Ninja Viking (Pratt) – is called in to take down his own brethren.

The project has been prioritised and will go into production this year for a June 28th 2019 release. Craig Mazin (“The Hangover II”) wrote the most recent draft of the screenplay, taking over from “Zombieland” scribes Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese.

Pratt, Mark Gordon and Michael De Luca will produce. McLaren was originally set to direct “Wonder Woman” but left that project over creative differences.

 

[ant-mac]

McLaren To Helm “Cowboy Ninja Viking”

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Michelle MacLaren (“Breaking Bad,” “Game of Thrones”) has been set to direct the comic adaptation “Cowboy Ninja Viking” at Universal Pictures. MacLaren reportedly beat out Jennifer Yuh Nelson (“Kung Fu Panda”) and Rick Famuyiwa (“Dope’) for the job.

The story involves a counter-intelligence unit that uses multiple personality disorder patients to create agents known as Triplets, referring to the three personalities the killers have.

When the agents become rogue hired guns, the deadliest Triplet of all – the Cowboy Ninja Viking (Pratt) – is called in to take down his own brethren.

The project has been prioritised and will go into production this year for a June 28th 2019 release. Craig Mazin (“The Hangover II”) wrote the most recent draft of the screenplay, taking over from “Zombieland” scribes Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese.

Pratt, Mark Gordon and Michael De Luca will produce. McLaren was originally set to direct “Wonder Woman” but left that project over creative differences.

Well, based upon the multiple-personality triplet idea, the woman I'm looking for is a multi-millionaire brewery-owning nymphomaniac.

It may not quite have the same ring, but who cares?

 

[Doctor Omega]

Paramount To Adapt The “Ology” Books





Paramount Pictures has set up a writers room for a film franchise based on the “Ology” book series. The plan is for a live-action family franchise universe, built around a research institute, where the fringe sciences that no one else takes seriously are studied in earnest.

Akiva Goldsman, the shepherd of the previous “Transformers” and Hasbro cinematic universe-building writer’s room initiatives at the studio, will serve in the same capacity again on this one with his Weed Road production banner producing the film.

The plan is for each of the writers to embrace one of the books and create a treatment with the visual artists who are part of this writers room. The hope is to ultimately have seven movie scripts with interconnected stories.

Those involved include Goldsman himself along with “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” scribe Jeff Pinkner; Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon; “Guardians of the Galaxy” scribe Nicole Perlman, “Black Panther” screenwriter Joe Robert Cole, “Bumblebee” writer Christina Hodson, and Lindsey Beer who is adapting “Kingkiller Chronicle” for Sam Raimi and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Goldsman is also developing the Jack Ryan spin-off movie series “Rainbow Six” based on Tom Clancy’s novels with Ryan Reynolds rumored to play the role of John Clark.