When Rachel Boynton first went to Africa to research her documentary Big Men, which premiered this week at the Tribeca Film Festival, she had three unrelated phone numbers. Six years later, she had a film that takes an expansive, yet focused, look at how oil makes its way from deep in an ocean off the coast of Ghana to the U.S. stock exchange, and the ensuing complications.

The film explores the connections between the Ghanaian company who finds the oil field, the small Texas oil company who drills, the Wall Street private equity partners who invest, and the Ghanaian government officials who manage the contracts. The glitch, depending on your seat, comes when Ghanaian leadership changes, the justice department is called in to investigate allegations of corruption on the part of the U.S. firm and credit contracts due to the financial crisis.

The film’s backdrop is the increasing violence in Nigeria, where militants are stealing from and blowing up foreign gas pipelines in an effort to siphon off profits from the corrupt Nigerian government who isn’t sharing the riches. The doc simultaneously looks at the process and implications of western companies investing in foreign oil ventures, profiles an African country trying to profit after centuries of exploitation and watches as everyone navigates how to slice the billion-dollar pie.

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Today, with very little effort, anyone can land in virtually any city in this country, and within a day or two, procure their drug of choice. Since declaring a war on drugs 40 years ago, the United States has spent more than a trillion dollars, arrested more than 45 million people, and racked up the highest incarceration rate in the world. Yet it remains laughably easy to obtain illegal drugs. So why do we continue down this same path? Why do we talk about the drug war as if it’s a success? It’s a charade.

The drug war continues because it is a system that perpetuates itself. On a local level, any time a bust is made, scarcity drives up prices and, of course, the profit potential. History has taught us that there is no shortage of opportunists willing to fill the void and so the cycle continues and rates of drug use and dealing remain unchanged while incarceration skyrockets.

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The new movie True Story, which is being produced by Brad Pitt’s Plan B production company, is currently filming around Cascade Rd and Brady Rd in Warwick, NY. They are also working around Warwick County Park.

The movie is based on a memoir by Michael Finkel, the former New York Times Magazine writer who learned Christian Longo, one of the FBI’s Wanted, had been living under his identity for years. The day after Longo was captured, Finkel was fired for falsifying a story but, just when it seemed his career was over, Longo decided he would only do interviews with Finkel, which gave him a chance to redeem himself.

Jonah Hill is playing Finkel and James Franco has signed on to play Longo. The film will shoot in and around New York City through May 1st. Other locations will include Sparky’s Diner in Garnerville and their home studio, Cine Magic Riverfront Studios, in Brooklyn

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Brad Pitt, John Legend, Russell Simmons, Danny Glover and filmaker Eugene Jarecki released joint statements in praise of President Barack Obama’s evolution on the enforcement of marijuana legislation on Wednesday, agreeing with Obama’s assertion that “we’ve got bigger fish to fry.”

The president was discussing recreational marijuana use in Colorado and Washington, two states that legalized recreational pot use by adults.

Pitt and company — executive producers of the Jarecki-directed film “The House I Live In” — released the following statement:

President Obama should be commended for expressing the will of the people in Colorado and Washington. Our jails are overburdened with nonviolent drug users in this country, too often serving harsher sentences than violent criminals. This defies all common and economic sense. The President’s statement reflects a saner and more sensible drug policy, and a step away from the decades long failed war on drugs

“The House I Live In” is an award-winning documentary that urges reforms to drug laws, with a particular focus on sentencing.

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In a late buy, ABC has put in development The Returned, a serialized drama produced by Brad Pitt’s Plan B, Brillstein Entertainment Partners and ABC Studios. Written by Aaron Zelman (AMC’s The Killing), The Returned is based on the debut novel by Jason Mott, which is slated to be published next September by Mira Books. The rights to the book sparked a bidding war among several production companies and studios. Brillstein and Plan B were able to land the property in their first teaming together, and the project was taken to ABC Studios where Brillstein is based. Executive producing alongside Zelman are JoAnn Alfano and Jon Liebman from BEP and Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner from Plan B.

The Returned is one of several projects BEP has set up this season, including two with CSI creator Anthony Zuiker: soap Taboo at ABC and an Alice In Wonderland sequel at NBC. Zelman is repped by UTA and Circle of Confusion.

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HBO is developing “Paper,” an hourlong drama inspired by Jake Halpern’s essay “Pay Up,” featured in the New Yorker. Dede Gardner and Brad Pitt will exec produce through Pitt’s shingle, Plan B Entertainment, where Gardner serves as president.
“Paper” centers on a notorious ex-gangster and single father in Buffalo, N.Y., who is trying to reform himself by also serving as a professional debt collector. He finds, however, that life in the debt collection business can be just as lethal as the biz he’s struggling to leave behind.

Short-story scribe Wells Tower will pen the project and co-exec produce.

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PS. If you are experiencing problems logging into the SB Forum, just email me at webmaster@simplybrad.com and I will sort you out

“I’m Brad Pitt and I’m a drug addict,” is the way The House I Live In’s executive producer jokingly introduced his new documentary at the Sundance Sunset Cinema on October 12. Pitt had flown in from Europe to give Eugene Jarecki’s film on U.S. drug policy a boost as it starts its North American roll out.

“My drug days have long since passed,” added Pitt, “But I could probably land in any American city and within 24 hours find whatever you want. But we still support this charade called the drug war. We spent a trillion dollars over 40 years and a lot of people have lost their lives over it.”

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The past two days have been bookended by news from the front of Brad Pitt’s literary land-grab. Yesterday the Weinstein Company announced it had shifted the release date of “Killing Them Softly,” an adaptation of George V. Higgins’ Cogan’s Trade starring and produced by Pitt, to an Oscar-optimizing November 30. And word just got out that Pitt has been quietly developing an adaptation of IBM and the Holocaust, Edwin Black’s bestselling investigation into the computer conglom’s role assisting the Nazis to target Jews.

Perhaps literary evangelism is the most apt analogy for Pitt’s zeal for using his box office muscle to move challenging literary prizewinners from the rarefied microbrew-and-kale-salad haunts of the McSweeney’s generation to anyone within reach of a multiplex or the cable remote. Over the past decade, Pitt has undergone a self-generated conversion from matinee idol to serious-minded producer-actor and hardcore bibliophile, whose taste for ambitious, thought-provoking book-based material could give Scott Rudin — the Godfather of page-to-screen prestige pictures — a run for his money.

Read more. Thanks Gabriella. Interesting article, I must say.

The Tiger was pitched to us two years ago as the chance for Brad Pitt and Darren Aronofsky to reunite after they failed to get their version of The Fountain off the ground. Pitt and Aronofsky are indeed producing—along with Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Mark Heyman, and Ari Handel—but that may be the limit of their involvement. Deadline reports Michael R. Roskam (Bullhead) will direct The Tiger, an adaptation of the book by John Vaillant. The script by Guillermo Arriaga (Babel) “takes place on the Siberian plain, where humans encroach on a tiger’s habitat with tragic results.” The lead role is an animal activist who must figure out how to stop the tiger that is slaughtering the villagers. Pitt initially eyed that role, but the new report only mentions him as a producer.

The Tiger will be the English-language debut for the Belgian director, who is riding a wave of buzz ever since his first feature, Bullhead, earned a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination last year. Roskam reportedly turned down many offers before saying yes to Focus Features for The Tiger. Hit the jump for the book synopsis.

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Brad Pitt has come onboard to produce Andrew Dominik’s long-gestating $20 million drama about Marilyn Monroe.

Based on the imaginary Monroe memoirs “Blonde” by Joyce Carol Oates, the story is said to look at the “imagined inner life of the iconic actress”.

Naomi Watts was previously attached to play Monroe when the project was setup at Wild Bunch, but the film is now a whole different incarnation.

Pitt tells 24 Frames that “We’re going to get this one done” and adds that it is uncertain right now if he will take a role in the movie as well. Shooting could begin as early as the start of next year.

Pitt and Dominik previously worked together on both “The Assassination of Jesse James” and the upcoming “Killing Them Softly”.

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The father-of-six – who recently said he and fiancee Angelina Jolie had been too busy to set a date for their wedding – has been in Cannes promoting his new film Killing Them Softly, but admitted he is ready to have a break from work.

Brad said: “It just doesn’t happen back to back to back. You need time off to refuel and to be inspired again. There’s no greater inspiration than family.”

He added: “Right now, I’m just attracted to being a dad. Film-wise, we get to do this thing and I feel very fortunate to get to do this. So I want to contribute to the art form. I think the films have to speak to our time and be authentic in their approach.”

The 48-year old actor – who runs production company Plan B, which produced Killing Them Softly – added that he is looking to spend more time behind the camera.

He said: “I’m focusing more on producing this year than getting in front of the camera.”

Brad added that he’s particularly excited about producing the next film from Shame director Steve McQueen.

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The Hunger Games starlet may take the lead role in the big-screen adaptation of Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle: A Memoir, which had a record-breaking stint on the New York Times best-seller list for a memoir, reported Deadline.

She is expected to portray the author, a gossip columnist who had a difficult childhood with her “dysfunctional but vibrant” family in the upcoming drama, which is being written by Marti Noxon.

The rights to the 2005 book were originally picked up by Paramount Pictures and Brad Pitt’s Plan B productions, but it is thought that Lionsgate now has the rights.

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New Regency is in talks to co-finance and distribute (through its output deal with 20th Century Fox) the Steve McQueen-directed Twelve Years A Slave, an adaptation of the Solomon Northup memoir originally published in 1853. Chiwetel Ejiofor will play Northup, and Michael Fassbender will reunite with Shame director McQueen. Fassbender will play a plantation owner. Brad Pitt will play a Northern lawyer who helps free Northup and he and his Plan B banner will produce the film.

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Moneyball Oscar nominees Brad Pitt, who will produce, and Jonah Hill, who will star, are reuniting once again for True Story, a film that also has James Franco attached to co-star.

The project is based on the memoir by Michael Finkel, a New York Times Magazine journalist who learned in 2002 that his identity was used by serial killer Christian Longo, a fugitive on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List. Michael Finkel was fired by the magazine after Christian Longo was captured in Mexico, until the fugitive revealed that Michael Finkel was the only person he would talk to. Jonah Hill will play Michael Finkel and James Franco is set to portray Christian Longo.

Brad Pitt is only producing True Story with his Plan B partner Dede Gardner, and won’t be acting opposite his Moneyball co-star in the project. Rupert Goold is directing. A screenwriter is not yet attached to adapt Michael Finkel’s book yet.

The project was initially set up at Paramount, but now Plan B Productions is seeking financing elsewhere, with a deal expected to be reached later this week. No production schedule was released for True Story.

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Julia Roberts, Alec Baldwin, Matt Bomer and Jim Parsons have joined Ryan Murphy’s (“American Horror Story,” Eat Pray Love, “Glee”) next film, an adaptation of Larry Kramer’s semi-autobiographical play The Normal Heart, says The Hollywood Reporter. The film is being produced by Brad Pitt’s Plan B production company. The play is described as follows:

“The Normal Heart” is the explosive drama about our most terrifying and troubling medical crisis today: the AIDS epidemic. It tells the story of very private lives caught up in the heartrendering ordeal of suffering and doom – an ordeal that was largely ignored for reasons of politics and majority morality.”

Mark Ruffalo will play the lead character Ned Weeks. Roberts plays Emma Brookner, “a wheel-chair bound doctor who is one of the only doctors in New York talking the new disease seriously.” Baldwin will play Weeks’ brother, “a lawyer having a hard time dealing with his sibling’s sexuality.” Bomer’s character is Felix Turner, “a gay fashion journalist who becomes Week’s boyfriend and tragically contracts the disease,” while Parsons is reprising his Broadway version of “a Southerner who is a gay activist and part of a gay men’s health crisis group.”

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