• captain-phillips01

    WGA Rewards 'Her' And 'Captain Phillips'

    By Angie Han February 3rd, 2014

    By this point in the awards race, it's usually pretty clear who the frontrunners are. Most of the guilds have already thrown their support behind a few favorite films, which typically then go on to fare well at the Academy Awards. Nevertheless, there were a couple of mild surprises when the WGA announced its 2014 Writers…

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  • Universal Hires 'Hunger Games' Writer To Pen Second, Competing 'Mummy' Script

    By Angie Han February 14th, 2013

    Universal really, really wants their The Mummy reboot to work. Last spring, the studio set Prometheus co-writer Jon Spaihts to pen a modern-day reboot of the classic franchise. Now, they're bringing in some extra help in the form of Hunger Games scribe Billy Ray. While it's pretty typical for a high-profile tentpole pic to go…

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  • Billy Ray Rewriting Martin Scorsese's 'Sinatra' Biopic

    By Germain Lussier August 14th, 2012

    Like most famous, talented directors, Martin Scorsese always has a bevy of projects at his fingertips. Right now he's shooting The Wolf of Wall Street with Leonardo DiCaprio but once he finishes that, who knows? Maybe it'll be Silence, maybe it'll be The Irishman, or maybe he'll finally get around to directing the long rumored…

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  • The Feature Film Version Of '24' Might Not Happen This Year After All

    By Russ Fischer March 14th, 2012

    The final episode of 24 was broadcast in May 2010, and not long after we started to hear serious talk about a feature film continuation of the series anchored by Kiefer Sutherland's character Jack Bauer. Fox spent a lot of time choosing a screenwriter (Billy Ray eventually scripted, with Mark Bomback polishing) and starting the…

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  • 'The Hunger Games' Trailer

    By Russ Fischer November 14th, 2011

    Here's the first full trailer for the Gary Ross-directed adaptation of The Hunger Games, the first novel in Suzanne Collins' darkly futuristic trilogy of novels about teenagers chosen by lottery to fight to the death as representatives of their local district. Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Liam Hemsworth are the young leads in the Lionsgate…

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  • Billy Ray To Rewrite Johnny Depp's 'The Thin Man'

    By Russ Fischer October 7th, 2011

    The new version of The Thin Man, which Johnny Depp set in motion at Warner Bros. last year, is still moving forward. The star has wanted to make a new film based on Dashiell Hammett's classic novel (which already spawned a six-film series and a television show) and last year roped in his Pirates 4…

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  • Billy Ray And JJ Abrams Working On A Mysterious New Project For Paramount

    By Angie Han October 3rd, 2011

    Briefly: The "mysterious" part of the headline really goes without saying, doesn't it? Deadline reports that famously secretive filmmaker JJ Abrams is joining forces with screenwriter Billy Ray for a "mystery adventure," the pitch for which has just been purchased by Paramount. That's all we know at this point, but we like Abrams enough that…

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  • Casting Bits: Denzel Washington Offered 'Secret In Their Eyes' Remake, Will Forte Joins 'Neighborhood Watch', Isla Fisher Replaces Amanda Seyfried In 'Now You See Me'

    By Angie Han September 17th, 2011

    Denzel Washington has reportedly been offered the lead role in the English-language remake of The Secret in Their Eyes, which is being helmed by Billy Ray (Shattered Glass). The original Argentinian version, by director Juan José Campanella, was a critical success that won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Picture in 2010. In other words,…

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  • Paul Greengrass Offered Sony's Somali Pirate Film, 'Maersk Alabama'

    By Russ Fischer June 8th, 2011

    Here's an incremental update on both the film to be based on Captain Richard Phillips' memoir A Captain's Duty and the next stage in the career of director Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy, Green Zone). Last week we reported that the director had become a candidate for Sony's film based on the book, which Tom…

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  • Peter Pan Is The New Snow White: Five Projects In Development

    By Russ Fischer March 19th, 2011

    Hollywood has never been a town that likes original ideas. It likes safe and established and easy. But sometimes the attraction to stories with those qualities veers into bizarre obsession. So it has been lately with anything that looks like a fairy tale or romantic fantasy story. We've got multiple Snow White movies in development…

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  • Tom Hanks Attached To Play Richard Phillips In Somali Pirate Movie

    By Russ Fischer March 15th, 2011

    Some actors attach themselves to scores of films, most of which will never get made, or will never get made with those actors in the cast. Tom Hanks is not one of those actors. He latches on to far fewer projects, and the ones he does pick have a higher probability of getting made. He's…

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  • Sony Buying Into Channing Tatum's Peter Pan Origin Story 'Pan'

    By Russ Fischer March 8th, 2011

    Briefly: Last week we told you about a pitch called Peter Pan Begins -- a title which was erroneous, as the project is simply called Pan -- which was going around town with Channing Tatum attached to star, Billy Ray writing and Joe Roth producing. Now Sony is negotiating to buy the project, with THR…

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