News – From Around The Web

GANGSTA
One of the scripts getting a lot of heat lately is Tales from the Gangster Squad at Warner Bros. Some people tell me the script is awesome and others tell me it hasn’t even been written yet (IMDB lists it as “out to writers.”) The script chronicles the LAPD’s fight to keep East Coast Mafia types out of Los Angeles in the 40s and 50s. It was out to Ben Affleck after The Town’s big opening weekend and is now out to Darren Aronofsky, who is deciding between it and Wolverine 2. Apparently the reason Aronofsky lost the Superman job to Snyder was because WB’s brass knew he’d nitpick at the script for another two years, time they weren’t willing to spend.

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN THE DIRECTOR’S CHAIR
Tomas Alfredson who directed the amazing ORIGINAL “Let The Right One In” has decided to make his next project the Philip Reeve children’s novel, Larklight. The setting sounds like a children’s utopia, with Victorian-era alternate universes and renegade space pirates. Alfredson will first tackle the espionage thriller, “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.” The very busy Steve Knight, who wrote one of my Top 25 favorite scripts, is penning Larklight.  I’m not a betting man, but I’m willing to throw down 50 bucks that this is the first book in a trilogy? 

CRUISE – NICHOLSON
You know I only saw A Few Good Men for the first time six months ago? I don’t know why but I was just never interested in watching it. My thoughts afterwards? Pretty good film. And really solid screenplay. Well, Cruise and Jack may be back together again thanks to a script titled “El Presidente,” about a secret service agent assigned to protect a bumbling ex-president. Dan Goor, who writes on the underrated (and not yet canceled as far as I can tell!) Parks and Recreation, wrote the script. This sounds like it might be funny. If you have it, please pass it along.

SKIPPIDY WILLIS-AH
Writer Skip Woods has penned a script titled “Ten,” that Bruce Willis is interested in. I don’t know much about the project other than that it’s a drama. Woods is high grade though, penning X-Men: Origins, The A-Team, and the new Die Hard 5 script. If you have any more info on this script, please contact me. :)

WIZARD OF RAIMI
The other day we talked about Sam Raimi’s super sci-fi Independence Day like project he was thinking of directing. But Sam has now officially committed to another reimagining of The Wizard of Oz, this titled “Oz The Great and Powerful.” The script is being rewritten by David Lindsay-Abaire, who wrote the animated film, Robots, and the upcoming Dreamworks project, “The Guardians,” about Santa Clause banding together with other holiday creatures to take on the Bogeyman. If Sam’s going to do an Oz project, why not the script that won the Scriptshadow Screenplay Contest?  Come on Sam!