Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment has come aboard to produce Ryan Murphy’s “The Normal Heart.”
Based on Larry Kramer’s semi-autobiographical play, pic centers on an activist’s attempts to raise HIV/AIDS awareness during the 1980s.
Murphy will direct and serve as producer; The “Glee” creator last directed “Eat Pray Love” in 2010.
“The Normal Heart” enjoyed a Broadway run this year, starring Ellen Barkin and Joe Mantello. Mark Ruffalo is attached to star in the bigscreen adaptation.
plan b
The Help director in talks for Peace Like A River
The Help director Tate Taylor is currently in talks to adapt the Leif Enger novel, Peace Like A River, for the big screen.
After the financial success of The Help (which did well in its first week at the US box office), Dreamworks are keen to work with Taylor again, this time teaming up with Warner Bros and Brad Pitt’s Plan B production company.
David Brown and Kit Golden will produce, alongside Pitt.
Peace Like A River, set in 1962, is a tale narrated by Reuben, an asthmatic 11-year-old boy who lives with his oddball family in smalltown Minnesota.
Twelve Years a Slave
Brad Pitt and his Plan B banner are tackling the subject of slavery with an adaptation of Twelve Years a Slave, an autobiography written in 1853 by Solomon Northup, a free black man who became enslaved.
Steve McQueen, who co-wrote and directed the acclaimed 2008 drama Hunger, is directing the adaptation while Chiwetel Ejiofor, the British actor who has appeared in movies such as Salt and Inside Man, is attached to the part of Northup. McQueen co-wrote the script with John Ridley.
Northup was a married and educated free black man living in New York when two men approached him with a job offer in Washington. When he showed up in D.C., he was kidnapped and put in a slave pen, paving the way to his grueling life under numerous owners.
The book is studied for everything from its details of the slave markets that existed in D.C. to the type of food served to slaves.
Read more/discuss. Thanks Gabriella.
Matthew Fox And Ed Harris In Talks To Join Brad Pitt In World War Z
The cast for World War Z is bulking up by the day, and yet, I still can’t figure out exactly how director Marc Forster has decided to adapt Max Brooks’s giant novel into a workable film. According to Deadline Ed Harris and Matthew Fox are both in talks to join the film, though the roles aren’t specified; Forster is also bringing in French actress Julia Levy-Boeken, and of course her role isn’t specified either.
The Pacific’s James Badge Dale Joins Brad Pitt In World War Z
Even though Brad Pitt has been attached to star since June 2006, World War Z, the adaptation of Max Brooks’s novel about “the zombie war,” has had a hell of a time getting made. As recently as this March Paramount was looking for a co-financier to help make the massive movie possible– budgeted at over $125 million, World War Z will mimic the book’s exhaustive account of the zombie apocalypse, and those giant battle scenes don’t come cheap.
Now that the film really is moving forward, with Pitt still set to star, the studio can afford to bring in some smaller names whose salaries won’t inflate the price tag. According to Variety, The Pacific star James Badge Dale will be playing a key role, as an American soldier “who tries to alert authorities that the zombie threat is real.” Pitt will be playing the lead character but who actually does the least in the book, the interviewer largely existing off the page, asking the questions that form the narrative of the book.
Walden, Universal partner on Zamperini pic
Walden Media has partnered with Universal Pictures to bring the Lou Zamperini story to the screen after 55 years in development.
Walden announced its involvement Thursday. Universal originally began development of the Zamperini story in 1956 but wasn’t ever able to bring the pic to the big screen.Project was dubbed “Iron Man” at that point, a nickname given Zamperini for withstanding torture during his internment by a vicious guard nicknamed “The Bird.” In 2003, Brad Pitt’s Plan B came on produce with Universal and Cage’s Saturn Films on “Lou Zamperini” and attached Antoine Fuqua to direct.
Back to Malta soon?
Hollywood star Brad Pitt is expected back in Malta for the filming of the Paramount zombie blockbuster World War Z, with shooting starting next month for about three weeks.
Cinema industry sources said the American actor was likely to have his star-studded family in tow. He should be accompanied by the equally celebrated actress Angelina Jolie. Labelled the sexiest stars in film history and attracting major global media attention, the couple has six adopted and biological children.
Brad Pitt was last in Malta in 2003 for the filming of the ancient epic Troy in which he played the mightiest of the Greeks, Achilles. This time round, he is a United Nations worker and father of two girls in the big-budget movie he is also producing.
Read more/discuss. Thanks Guli.
First co-star World War Z
Mireille Enos, the star of AMC’s new crime drama “The Killing,” is leaping into features, nabbing the role of Brad Pitt’s wife in “World War Z,” an adaptation of Max Brooks’ globe-spanning zombie novel.
Marc Forster (“Quantum of Solace”) is directing the big-budget Paramount movie. Shooting is scheduled to begin in June in London, Malta and other locales around the world.
The novel is set 10 years after a global zombie epidemic, and is an oral history told from many perspectives around the world. Pitt, who is also producing, will play a U.N. worker. Enos would play his wife, a mother of two girls.
Read more/discuss. Your admin is the biggest wimp in the world when it comes to horror/zombie flicks. Will she find the strength to watch this movie? Stay tuned.
