Brandon Routh (“Superman Returns”) is set to be in Frank Darabont’s zombie AMC series “The Walking Dead”… or is he? Bloody-Disgusting reported that he was, then took it back when Brandon’s unofficial website squashed the news, deeming it untrue. If the TV show follows the comics well enough, Routh might’ve been in mind for pizza delivery boy Glenn, who goes on runs for the survivors, looting stores for food and ammo. For now, it’s safe to assume that Routh’s involvement is still a rumor and nothing else. The show will star Andrew Lincoln (“Love Actually”) and Jon Bernthal (“Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian”), with the pilot shooting in May and a premiere set for October 2010.
Variety reports that Broadway musical “In The Heights” will get the film treatment by Universal Pictures. Hoping to recreate “Mama Mia!” success, Universal has hired Marc Klein (upcoming Reynolds/Faris “TMI”) to script the adaptation, and Kenny Ortega to direct. The Tony award winning show stars Usnavi (played by creator Lin-Manuel Miranda) who decides to retire from his bodega after winning some money, but feels guilty as he says a final goodbye to his family of customers.
Young teen thriller book series “Homelanders” is nearly set to have a home at Summit Entertainment, where it would have to bunk with the “Twilight” franchise. “Homelanders” is about a teenager that wakes up after a year’s rest tied to a chair. As he is on the run, he must figure out what the government and terrorist organizations could possibly want with him. Collider states that the book series has a striking resemblance to the “Bourne” franchise. If Summit gets the film rights to this series, be prepared to hear about new teen heart throbs for another five years. For those teens that have trouble finding entertainment in vampire-werewolf-human love triangles, “Homelanders” might be more up their alley. That is, if they’re still a teen by the time the series works out a deal and is released.
THR mentions that Jeremy Slater has pitched an as-of-yet untitled “airport-thriller” to DreamWorks Studios, and they like it. On board are producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (“Transformer 2,” “Cowboys and Aliens,” “Eagle Eye”) and executive producers Matthew Cullen and Sean Sorensen. So far, Cullen has got the big director’s chair and Slater will be fleshing his pitch into a script. Little else is known about the project. Slater is on quite a roll now, with spec script “My Spy” at CBS Films and work on the thriller by MTV Films & Paramount joint “Handsome Devil.”
Penelope Spheeris is set to get behind the camera for the first time since 2005, helming the indie comedy “Balls To The Wall.” The film stars “Got Milk?” commercial veterans Jenna Dewan and Joe Hursley in a story about “a young man (Hursley) who wants to give his girlfriend (Dewan) the wedding of her dreams, and at the urging of his future father-in-law, secretly takes on a second job moonlighting as an exotic dancer. At the club, called “The Male Room,” he discovers a talent he never expected.”