It’s been a busy 24 hours in Hollywood, with loads of news sneaking out before everything shuts down in preparation for the Oscar, so here’s a round-up of some of the smaller stories….
Jessica Lucas, star of the new version of TV’s Melrose Place, has signed up to appear in Big Momma’s House 3. She’ll play the female lead in the film, which will see Martin Lawrence’s Big Momma joined by a new gender-bending character, his nephew (played by Brandon T. Jackson), with both of them going undercover at a performing arts shcool. Lucas’s characters meets up with the nephew, first as a boy and then as a girl. (Source: Variety)
Humpday director Lynn Shelton has revealed that she’s planning a film based on Joshua Ferris’ award-winning novel, Then We Came To The End. The book takes place in a Chicago advertising agency that is experiencing a downturn at the end of the 1990s due to the collapse of the internet bubble. The novel is known for employing a first-person plural, group-think narrative, as well as its wide-ranging, satirical plot and it’ll be interesting to see how they translate that onto film. (Source: Indiewire)
Spirtual guru Deepak Chopra has been moonlighting as a comic writer with Beyond recently, and now it’s been announced that he’s planning to adapt the comic into a supernatural thriller. The story is about a businessman whose wife disappears while on holiday in India. His search for her guided only by the sound of her cries coming through the ether. According to Chopra, “This is a story about reality being multi-dimensional and how we can take journeys to realms we never dreamed of by separating the veils that partition our minds.” Suri Krishnamaa (Being Othello) is attached to direct, with Chopra handling the script. (Souce: Variety)
Producers Daniel Sladek and Chris Taaffe (Prayers For Bobby) have optioned Graham Salisbury’s survival novel, Night Of The Howling Dogs, with plans for a film version. The book is based on the quest for survival that Boy Scout Troop 77 of Hilo, Hawaii, experienced while camping in the wilderness during the 1972 earthquake in Halape and the subsequent tsunami. Sounds fun. The producers has also acquired rights to MacGregor’s Lantern, by Corinne Joy Brown. It’s an historical-fiction story of love and survival set in the Colorado-Wyoming territories during the late 1800s, when wealthy Scottish and English cattle barons vied for control of the prairies and grasslands. (Source: Variety)
David Anspaugh (Hoosiers, Moonlight & Valentino) has signed up to direct Little Red Wagon, based on the story of 12-year-old Zach Bonner, an advocate for homeless youth. Patrick Sheane Duncan (Mr. Holland’s Opus) is writing the screenplay about Bonner, who as a 7-year-old used his wagon to collect water and supplies for victims of 2004’s Hurricane Charley. A year later, he formed the Little Red Wagon charity to help underprivileged kids. FIlming is due to start in the spring. (Source: THR)
Right At Your Door’s Chris Gorak is set to direct the alien invasion thriller, The Darkest Hour. Not much has been revealed about the movie, although it’ll see a group of kids struggling to survive in Russia after an alien invasion. Timur Bekmambetov is producing and it’ll shoot this summer in Russia. (Source: Deadline)