Andrew Jay Cohen and Brendan O'Brien have sold their comic pitch The Best Thing About Pam Rooney to Universal. The duo will pen the screenplay with the studio developing the project as a starring vehicle for Jonah Hill.
Plot details are still being kept under wraps, but Hill will produce the high-concept romantic comedy and the scribes will be executive producers. Cohen and OBrien come from the Judd Apatow world, having been co-producers on the filmmakers latest Funny People.
The two are also developing their script Moving In at Montecito Picture Co. and Paramount for Cohen to direct. Cohen previously worked for Apatow as an associate producer on The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Talladega Nights, and O'Brien was assistant to The 40-Year-Old Virgin producer Shauna Robertson.
Hill recently completed the Forgetting Sarah Marshall spin-off Get Him to the Greek, which centers on British rock star Aldous Snow (Russell Brand). The actor also has a starring role in an upcoming untitled comedy directed by Jay and Mark Duplass (Baghead).
Hills next film is expected to be The Adventurers Handbook, an adaptation of Mick Conefreys book that will also star Jason Schwartzman and Jason Segel. Akiva Schaffer (Hot Rod) is directing.
Virgin of Guadalupe Script in the Works
Friday, August 7, 2009 11:28 PM | From Latino Review
How's this for a change of pace? Joe Eszterhas, who wrote Basic Instinct and Showgirls, is set to write a screenplay about the Virgin of Guadalupe, the name used to refer to the apparation of the Virgin Mary that is said to have appeared on a hill in Mexico during the 16th century.
Though the project is still in the early stages -- it hasn't received a greenlight and no names are attached -- both Eszterhas and Steve McEveety, whose company Mpower Pictures is producing the film, have high hopes project. Eszeterhas, who reportedly gave up hard living for spirituality and Christianity after being diagnosed with throat cancer, said that he has long wanted to write a film that could inspire as well as entertain.
As for McEveety, he explained why he thought the script was a good idea. "Guadalupe changed the course of history for the indigenous peoples of Mexico. It had a transformative effect on their culture, and especially their faith."
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
From Basic Instinct to ... the Virgin Mary?
Thursday, August 6, 2009 11:49 AM | From Cinematical
News is trickling out that Joe Eszterhas, who has penned such silly-sexy-hackle raising films as Basic Instinct and, yes, Showgirls, is writing a script about the Virgin of Guadalupe. The famous religious icon and patron saint of Mexico appeared in 1531 to a Mexican man named Juan Diego, just one of many of Marian apparitions around the world. A church was built where she appeared; you can read more about Diego's vision and the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City here.
So, what is someone like Eszterhas going to write about the Virgin Mary? Has the Hollywood Animal found Jesus? As MovieWeb pointed out, Eszterhas also wrote Crossbearer: A Memoir of Faith after he's diagnosed with throat cancer and forced with a total upheaval of his personal life. And the producer company Mpower Pictures is behind a mixed bag of titles, from the critically acclaimed movie The Stoning of Soraya M. to other more religious and/or feel-good fare like Snowmen and the direct-to-DVD The Star of Bethlehem. And it bears mentioning that Mpower Pictures was founded by Steve McEveety, who was a producer on The Passion of the Christ and a number of other Mel Gibson flicks (including What Women Want, strangely enough.)
So, what the hey? Is this going to be an over-the-top "Versayce" Eszterhas classic or something along the lines of when Gibson started going a little loco with the sugartits stuff? Better yet, who would Eszterhas cast as the Virgin of Guadalupe? Who would you cast?
Joe Eszterhas was once the face of Hollywood excess. The Basic Instinct screenwriter was equally famous for drugs, womanizing and his multi-million dollar paychecks for scripts that either languished unproduced or became films like Showgirls, Jade and An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn. But he quit the excessive lifestyle, moved to Ohio (much of his childhood was spent in Cleveland) and suffered throat cancer, the battle with which helped him find religion. Writing only one produced screenplay in the last few years (Children of Glory), he instead published a book about his new faith, the title of which, Crossbearer, manages to preserve his trademark self-aggrandizing tone. Now, according to Variety, he's poised to return to screenwriting with a 'labor of love' script about the Virgin of Guadalupe.
Eszaterhas is working with MPower Pictures, the outfit run by Passion of the Christ producer Steve McEveety. THR quotes Eszterhas saying he has ...
God love Joe Eszterhas. The guy just can’t shake the fact that he’s written some of the sleaziest, most sexual screenplays to ever be produced in Hollywod. Besides the obvious two (’Basic Instinct’ and ‘Showgirls’) he’s also put pen to paper on ‘Jagged Edge,’ ‘Sliver,’ and ‘Jade.’ Not that the guy cares he has this reputation. In fact, he doesn’t much care about what other people think in general.
So throw out your obvious jokes about Eszterhas going back to his Final Draft to write a screenplay about the Virgin of Guadalupe. In what Eszterhas is calling a “labor of love,”…
How can you not be down with Paul Rudd? His career renaissance is one of the best parts about comedies in the 21st century, and since The 40-Year-Old Virgin he’s been an actor you can count on to just take it home. A lot of this rebirth has to do with his great turn in [...]
"Funny People," directed by Judd Apatow and starring Adam Sandler, has topped a moderate weekend box office with around $23 million from 3,008 theaters. The new comedy beat the opening numbers of Apatow's "40 Year Old Virgin" ($21.4 million), but fell short of outperforming "Knocked Up" ($30.7 million). But unlike other film's, Apatow's projects tend to do better as time passes, mostly due to word of mouth.
Universal showed their not concerned about the box-office potential of FUNNY PEOPLE as it relates to the success of Judd Apatow as they've signed the writer-director to a three-picture deal just a few days before his latest film hits theaters. While FUNNY likely won't bring the money that KNOCKED UP or 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN did, Apatow told me when I spoke to him that FUNNY PEOPLE is the kind of movie he'll "only get...
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News is trickling out that Joe Eszterhas, who has penned such silly-sexy-hackle raising films as Basic Instinct and, yes, Showgirls, is writing a script about the Virgin of Guadalupe. The famous religious icon and patron saint of Mexico appeared in 1531 to a Mexican man named Juan Diego, just one of many of Marian apparitions around the world. A church was built where she appeared; you can read more about Diego's vision and the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City here.
Universal showed their not concerned about the box-office potential of FUNNY PEOPLE as it relates to the success of Judd Apatow as they've signed the writer-director to a three-picture deal just a few days before his latest film hits theaters. While FUNNY likely won't bring the money that KNOCKED UP or 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN did, Apatow told me when I spoke to him that FUNNY PEOPLE is the kind of movie he'll "only get...
Read More...
