Having written two of the biggest hits of the summer, Star Trek and Tranformers: Revenge Of The Fallen, Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman can pretty much have their pick of any project they want in Hollywood. The one they’ve plumped for is Licensed To Steal, for Paramount.
The studio has paid seven figures for the screenwriters pitch for a comedy based on a Salon.com article about high-end repo men (bailiffs), who travel the globe repossessing the playboy toys of the rich and famous who fall on hard times.
In a massive show of the power that agents can have in Hollywood, WME got McG to pitch the project to Warner, Timur Bekmanbetov shopped it to Universal while Bryan Singer took it to Sony, however Paramount got in there first before anyone else had a chance to bid. There’s no news on whether any or none of those directors might actually end up making the movie, but it’s a pretty impressive display of the sort of firepower agents can yield when working with the studios.
Interestingly though, Orci and Kurtzman won’t write the film. They’ve hired Shane Salerno (Armageddon, AVP: Requiem) to pen the script, while the screewriting duo will produce.