Exclusive: Netflix has preemptively acquired a new feature thriller pitch from screenwriter Sean O’Keefe to be produced by Matt Reeves’ 6th & Idaho. The project is billed as being in the spirit of Ron Howard’s 1996 action kidnap thriller hit Ransom but with a female bent.
The new project reps a reteaming of Netflix and O’Keefe who co-penned the Mark Wahlberg action-comedy Spenser Confidential, which is the third most-watched movie on the streamer with 85 million households after Sam Hargrave’s Extraction at 99 million and Susanne Bier’s Bird Box starring Sandra Bullock which drew 89 million. Directed by Peter Berg, Spenser Confidential stars Mark Wahlberg as Boston ex-cop, Spenser, who teams up with his no-nonsense roommate, Hawk (Winston Duke), after two Boston police officers are murdered. O’Keefe co-wrote with Brian Helgeland based on the 2013 novel Robert B. Parker’s Wonderland by author Ace Atkins.
Adam Kassan and Rafi Crohn of...
The new project reps a reteaming of Netflix and O’Keefe who co-penned the Mark Wahlberg action-comedy Spenser Confidential, which is the third most-watched movie on the streamer with 85 million households after Sam Hargrave’s Extraction at 99 million and Susanne Bier’s Bird Box starring Sandra Bullock which drew 89 million. Directed by Peter Berg, Spenser Confidential stars Mark Wahlberg as Boston ex-cop, Spenser, who teams up with his no-nonsense roommate, Hawk (Winston Duke), after two Boston police officers are murdered. O’Keefe co-wrote with Brian Helgeland based on the 2013 novel Robert B. Parker’s Wonderland by author Ace Atkins.
Adam Kassan and Rafi Crohn of...
- 12/21/2020
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Netflix has made a deal with Mark Wahlberg, Peter Berg and the Robert B. Parker estate to bring back for a potential series of feature films Spenser, the poetry-spouting wisecracking former boxer-turned Boston-based private eye made famous in 40 novels by Parker, and in three seasons of the ‘80s TV series that starred Robert Urich.
The first film will be an adaptation of Robert B. Parker’s Wonderland, one of the eight Spenser mystery novels written by Ace Atkins, who took over the series after Parker died in 2010. The movie will differ from the novel, in that it begins with Spenser emerging from a prison stretch, stripped of his private investigator license. Here, he gets pulled back into the underbelly of the Boston crime world when he uncovers the truth about a sensational murder and the twisted conspiracy behind it.
Neal Moritz will produce through his Original Film banner, along with Wahlberg,...
The first film will be an adaptation of Robert B. Parker’s Wonderland, one of the eight Spenser mystery novels written by Ace Atkins, who took over the series after Parker died in 2010. The movie will differ from the novel, in that it begins with Spenser emerging from a prison stretch, stripped of his private investigator license. Here, he gets pulled back into the underbelly of the Boston crime world when he uncovers the truth about a sensational murder and the twisted conspiracy behind it.
Neal Moritz will produce through his Original Film banner, along with Wahlberg,...
- 6/26/2018
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
In another huge win for Netflix and its film chief Scott Stuber, the studio has set up an adaptation of Robert Parker’s “Wonderland,” with Mark Wahlberg set to star and Peter Berg to direct.
Neal H. Moritz is producing via his Original Film banner, alongside Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson and Berg via his Film 44 company.
The film is being adapted from “Robert B. Parker’s Wonderland,” written by Ace Atkins. The book is part of the Spenser series — named after a fictional character in a series of detective novels initially written by the American mystery writer Robert B. Parker and later by Ace Atkins.
The story follows Spenser who, fresh out of prison, is sucked back into Boston’s underbelly as he uncovers the truth about a sensational murder and the twisted conspiracy behind it.
Parker’s Spenser character has been the basis for 48 novels, all New York Times bestsellers.
Neal H. Moritz is producing via his Original Film banner, alongside Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson and Berg via his Film 44 company.
The film is being adapted from “Robert B. Parker’s Wonderland,” written by Ace Atkins. The book is part of the Spenser series — named after a fictional character in a series of detective novels initially written by the American mystery writer Robert B. Parker and later by Ace Atkins.
The story follows Spenser who, fresh out of prison, is sucked back into Boston’s underbelly as he uncovers the truth about a sensational murder and the twisted conspiracy behind it.
Parker’s Spenser character has been the basis for 48 novels, all New York Times bestsellers.
- 6/26/2018
- by Justin Kroll
- Variety Film + TV
There is either a couple of football fans or Jerry Maguire/Moneyball with this year’s most liked unproduced screenplay. Close to 300 hundred film executives provided with the Black List creators a top ten of their favorite screenplays of the year and the consensus first overall pick (with 65 votes) comes from the recently featured in Variety (10 Screenwriters to Watch 2012) tandem of Rajiv Joseph & Scott Rothman and their drama which has nothing to do with enlisting in the armed forces. Draft Day – about the day in the life of a fictitious Buffalo Bills Gm appears to currently be in turnaround — which only means I expect to see this greenlight perhaps a little later than sooner – worth noting: top spot almost guarantees that the film will indeed go into production (2006, 2010 and 2011 are the exceptions.) Among the more alluring logline subjects we find on the list, I’d be keen on reading the...
- 12/18/2012
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Following his seven-episode arc on "The Office," Idris Elba is staying in business with NBC.
The actor has teamed with "Battlestar Galactica" and "Caprica" executive producer David Eick to executive produce a drama project for the network.
Written by feature scribes Sean O'Keefe and Will Staples, the untitled project is a hard-hitting legal drama about a vigilante lawyer who uses any means necessary to defend his clients against a corrupt district attorney and city establishment.
The British native recently wrapped the Warner Bros. feature "Losers" and will next be seen in the Screen Gems thriller "Takers."
O'Keefe and Staples were recently hired to do a Page One re-imagining of "Apaches" for Jerry Bruckheimer. They are writing "World's Most Wanted" for Universal and producer Neal Moritz, and they recently delivered their adaptation of the book "The Cruelest Miles" to Walden Media and producer Mark Johnson.
Elba is repped by Icm and the U.
The actor has teamed with "Battlestar Galactica" and "Caprica" executive producer David Eick to executive produce a drama project for the network.
Written by feature scribes Sean O'Keefe and Will Staples, the untitled project is a hard-hitting legal drama about a vigilante lawyer who uses any means necessary to defend his clients against a corrupt district attorney and city establishment.
The British native recently wrapped the Warner Bros. feature "Losers" and will next be seen in the Screen Gems thriller "Takers."
O'Keefe and Staples were recently hired to do a Page One re-imagining of "Apaches" for Jerry Bruckheimer. They are writing "World's Most Wanted" for Universal and producer Neal Moritz, and they recently delivered their adaptation of the book "The Cruelest Miles" to Walden Media and producer Mark Johnson.
Elba is repped by Icm and the U.
- 10/27/2009
- by By Nellie Andreeva
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Walt Disney Pictures has pre-emptively acquired All About Adam, a spec script by Alan Schoolcraft and Brent Simons for Scott Rudin to produce.
Details are being kept under wraps, but the script is known to be a romantic comedy.
Kristin Burr will oversee the project for Disney.
This is the second project in as many weeks that Rudin has set up at Disney, where he is based. Rudin is producing the Matt Lieberman-penned family comedy The Pet with Craig Perry. He also is producing "Special Topics in Calamity Physics," which the Half Nelson team of Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden have just boarded to adapt for Miramax (HR 5/31).
Schoolcraft and Simons wrote the superhero sendup spec Master Mind, which is set up at DreamWorks with Ben Stiller and Stuart Cornfeld producing via their Red Hour Films banner. The pair, who just penned a relaunched version of Small Soldiers for DreamWorks, are repped by ICM and Brian Lutz Management.
Details are being kept under wraps, but the script is known to be a romantic comedy.
Kristin Burr will oversee the project for Disney.
This is the second project in as many weeks that Rudin has set up at Disney, where he is based. Rudin is producing the Matt Lieberman-penned family comedy The Pet with Craig Perry. He also is producing "Special Topics in Calamity Physics," which the Half Nelson team of Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden have just boarded to adapt for Miramax (HR 5/31).
Schoolcraft and Simons wrote the superhero sendup spec Master Mind, which is set up at DreamWorks with Ben Stiller and Stuart Cornfeld producing via their Red Hour Films banner. The pair, who just penned a relaunched version of Small Soldiers for DreamWorks, are repped by ICM and Brian Lutz Management.
Steve Pink is set to make his directorial debut on Accepted for Universal Pictures. Shady Acres Entertainment is producing. The high-concept comedy centers on a teenager who finds a unique way to outsmart his parents. Adam Cooper and Bill Collage are working on a rewrite based on the original screenplay by Mark Perez. Tom Shadyac is producing with partner Michael Bostick. Perez and manager Brian Lutz are executive producing. Scott Bernstein, vp production, will oversee the project for Universal. A writer-producer-actor, Pink's writing credits include High Fidelity and Grosse Pointe Blank, which he co-produced and 40 Days and Nights. Pink is represented by WMA. Coper and Collage's credits include Wrong Turn and New York Minute. They are represented by the Hohman/Maybank /Lieb Agency.
- 4/20/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Universal Pictures has invested in higher education by plunking down $1.25 million against almost $2 million for a college comedy from writer Mark Perez for director Tom Shadyac's Shady Acres production company. Shadyac is not expected to step into the director's chair but will produce with the shingle's Michael Bostick. Accepted centers on an underachieving high school senior who, wanting to get his parents off his back about higher education, decides to take an entrepreneurial point of view on things. Sources said the script is in the vein of Old School. Sources confirmed that Universal beat out several bidders, including MGM, Paramount and Regency Enterprises. Perez and his manager Brian Lutz are executive producing, while Scott Stuber and Holly Bario are overseeing the project for Universal. Perez, who came out of the Walt Disney Co.'s writer-in-residence program a few years ago, has his dance card full. He is writing Hardy Men with Ben Stiller attached for Fox 2000 and The Afterparty and Hit Man for Warner Bros. Pictures. Shady Acres produced the Shadyac-directed hit Bruce Almighty as well as Dragonfly. The company also produces the ABC comedy 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter. Perez is repped by Lutz and UTA. Shadyac and Shady Acres are repped by UTA.
- 10/23/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Walt Disney Co. has plunked down an undisclosed sum to pick up Jason Filardi's pitch Navy Seal, with Arnold Kopelson and Anne Kopelson's Kopelson Entertainment and Intertainment AG on board to produce. The project -- described only as a military comedy -- was developed from an original idea by Kopelson senior vp production Sherryl Clark and then brought to Filardi to write. At the studio, the project is being shepherded by executive vp Jason Reed. The deal reteams Filardi with Disney, the studio for which he penned the Steve Martin and Queen Latifah starrer Bringing Down the House. That project recently wrapped production with Adam Shankman at the helm. The Kopelsons, who won a best picture Oscar for Platoon, are currently producing Blackout, starring Ashley Judd, Samuel L. Jackson and Andy Garcia and directed by Philip Kaufman for Paramount Pictures and Intertainment. Filardi is repped by ICM and manager Brian Lutz. He is scripting the comedy Ghetto Buck for Columbia Pictures, with Dennis Dugan on board to direct and Martin Lawrence set to topline.
- 10/8/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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