Quite a few new smaller films have been announced, so rather than writing full stories on them, we thought we’d give yout these quick updates.
Luc Besson has set Michael Caleo to write Volcano, about the island of Norman’s Clay which in the 80s was turned into the centre of Pablo Escabar’s drug smuggling operation by his right-hand man, Carlo Lehder (whose father was a Nazi hiding in South America). It’s believed 75% of the Cocaine that reached the US came through the island, until the government launched a crackdown that saw Lehder turn against Escobar. Besson hatched the idea for the film. Apparently writer Caleo is particularly fascinated by the fact the legendary US newsreader Walter Kronkite played a major role in bringing Lehder down.
TV director Jason Winer is in talks to direct the Warner Bros. movie Shining City, an adaptation of a comedic novel by Seth Greenland. The book is about an unemployed father who’s left a dry cleaning business by his dead brother, only to discover this is just a front for a prostitution ring. He then sets about trying to gentrify the brothel, which attarcts the ire of a rival madam.
Allison Burnett (Autumn In New York, Fame) has signed up to write the screenplay for an adaptation of Tish Cohen’s book, Inside Out Girl. It’s a family drama about a divorced publisher trying to bring up a rebellious teenage daughter and 12-year-old son, who meets a widowed lawyer who is dealing with his daughter’s learning disorder.
New production company Studioline Entertainment has tapped first time director Christopher Bell to helm its first film, Guys Got Nothing. The small scale comedy will centre on two men with no romantic skills who enlist the help of their porn star idol to learn how to become alpha males.