Word comes from Twitch‘s Todd Brown that Johnnie To is currently at work on three projects. He plans to direct “a crime thriller starring Louis Koo and Wallace Cheung revolving around an ex-con drawn into a heist scheme shortly after his release from prison.” He’ll also co-produce, with Yau Nai-hoi, the tale of three “notorious thieves crossing from Mainland China to Hong Kong” with three directors—Frank Hui, Vicky Wong and Jevons Au Man-kit—each taking on one of the thieves’ stories. “And, finally, the third project is an eight-part anthology film exploring the history of Hong Kong from the 40s to the present with segments directed by To, Tsui Hark, John Woo, Ringo Lam, Anne Hui, Sammo Hung, Yuen Woo-ping and Patrick Tam. Which is, as they say, one hell of a collection of talent right there.”
What else have we heard about since Tuesday‘s “in the works” roundup? Well, Steve Carell is “in talks to join Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling and Christian Bale in The Big Short, the adaptation of a Michael Lewis bestseller,” according to Borys Kit in the Hollywood Reporter. Adam McKay’s written the screenplay and will direct.
“There’s a Gone Girl reunion brewing, with director David Fincher, screenwriter Gillian Flynn and actor Ben Affleck teaming up for a remake of the 1951 Hitchcock classic Strangers on a Train.” Rebecca Ford has more, in THR.
Annapurna Pictures will produce Mike Mills‘s 20th Century Women, reports Edward Davis at the Playlist. From the official synopsis: “Set in the wonderfully disruptive days of punk’s arrival to suburban America, Jimmy Carter’s last summer in office and the oil and fiscal crises of the late 70’s, the story is about three very different women teaching a boy what men are, what women are, about love and freedom and finding your own form of sanity in Santa Barbara 1979.” Says Mills: “The film is an ode to the women who raised me; my mom, my sisters, the girls I was in love with or looked up to at school and in the punk rock scene where I really learned about the world.”
Susanne Bier “has been signed up to adapt UK author John le Carré’s espionage drama The Night Manager for the small screen, scheduled to be broadcast in 2016,” reports Jorn Rossing Jensen for Cineuropa. Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston “will star in the first TV adaptation of a le Carré novel in over 20 years.”
Jennifer Lawrence and Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence are set to reunite for The Dive, produced by James Cameron, reports Variety‘s Justin Kroll. This’ll be “based on the true story of free-divers Francisco ‘Pipin’ Ferreras and his wife Audrey Mestre, who competed to travel as deeply as possible underwater on a single breath of air.”
Following last summer’s Edge of Tomorrow, “Tom Cruise and Doug Liman are in talks to reteam for Mena,” according to Borys Kit in THR. “The story tells of Barry Seal, a fired TWA pilot who became a major drug smuggler for the Medellin Cartel. He was later recruited by the DEA and CIA to provide intelligence, with his work tying to the Iran Contra scandal. He was assassinated by Colombians in 1986.”
Jason Bateman will “star in Joel Edgerton’s directorial debut, a drama called Weirdo,” reports Deadline‘s Mike Fleming, Jr. “Edgerton wrote the script and is producing. Bateman and [Rebecca] Hall play a husband and wife who seek to reinvigorate their relationship with a fresh beginning in a new town, only to be have their life disrupted by a ‘friend’ from the past.”
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