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SSN ORIGINALS
After last week’s look at the
Fast & Furious franchise, it’s time to take a gander at the MCCU, especially in light of this past weekend’s mammoth opening of
Avengers: Age of Ultron. Starting with 2008’s
Iron Man, Marvel Studios has become one of the most successful ventures in Hollywood, even after it was purchased by Disney in 2009.
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Hard as it may be to believe, a writer in Hollywood has better odds of starting in an NBA line-up than getting your project onto any screen (large or small) in today’s market. Those are pretty imposing numbers, so there are a few things writers should know as they venture forth. Bobette Buster has the info you’re looking for, exclusively in SSN.
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It’s an especially busy week on this front, as lots of new projects get off the ground, including an adaptation of
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, a new spinoff from NBC’s
Chicago world, several big specs, and a couple big projects from HBO and other cable nets. Click on the link for the full story.
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
This year’s festival will have 39 world premieres including Baron Davis’ documentary
The Drew: No Excuse, Just Produce and Will Slocombe’s
The Escort, starring Lyndsy Fonseca. The lineup includes 74 feature films, 60 short films and over 50 new media works representing 35 countries. New sections include the U.S. fiction and world fiction competitions and launch, as well as the previously announced Buzz, Nightfall and Zeitgeist programs.
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Sean Anders, who directed the actress in last year’s
Horrible Bosses 2, will helm the New Line comedy. Story will adapt Rosalind Wiseman’s nonfiction book
Queen Bee Moms And King Pin Dads, a followup to her 2002 book
Queen Bees and Wannabees. That book also served as the source material for the 2004 comedy
Mean Girls. Film is being produced by Offspring Entertainment’s Jennifer Gibgot and Adam Shankman.
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The British actress will star in
Bronco Belle, and will play an American bull rider named Raylene Jackson who battles through heartbreak, prejudice, broken dreams and bones to reach the top of the sport. is written and will be directed by Khurram Longi, who will now make this his feature debut. He previously helmed episodes of the UK series
My Life as a Popat.
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The writer of
Capote and
Foxcatcher has optioned Robert Young Pelton’s Vice Magazine article,
The All-American Life and Death of Eric Harroun. Harroun was an American soldier who fought against the Syrian government as part of a rebel group sanctioned and supported by the U.S. government, but was later arrested and incarcerated. Just as the legal cloud over his head was finally lifting, he was found dead of what was seemed to be a suspicious drug overdose.
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Roxanne Messina Captor is set to direct the project when production kicks off next year in Zhejiang Province, Shanghai and Prague. Buck spent most of her life in China, first as a missionary before she began writing to support her mentally challenged daughter in a special school. Story will take place following the Nanking Incident in 1927, which launched the struggle known as the “Ten Years Civil War” between Communists and Nationalists
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The duo will adapt Isabel Wilkerson's bestselling historical book
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration for FX. Rees will write the miniseries, while Rhimes and her Shondaland partner Betsy Beers will executive produce. Story chronicles the north- and eastward migration of six million African Americans from the South during the 20th century, focusing on three individuals' journeys.
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The latest look at director Bill Condon’s spin on the classic character Sherlock Holmes. Starring Ian McKellan, story follows Holmes at the end of his life. Grappling with the diminishing powers of his mind, he comes to rely upon his housekeeper’s young son as he revisits the circumstances of the unsolved case that forced him into retirement, and searches for answers to the mysteries of life and love – before it's too late. The movie hits theaters July 17th.
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