Steve Zaillian‘s Film Rites company is on a major roll (as is the Academy Award-winning writer himself). The production banner has “The Cold Light of Day,” starring “Superman“-to-be Henry Cavill, and “Red Riding Hood” coming out later this year (the former with Summit, the latter with Warner Bros.), they inked a first-look, two-year producing deal with DreamWorks last spring and most recently they’re working on the English-language adaptation of the Spanish sci-fi time-travel pic, “Time Crimes,” at the studio as well.
DreamWorks and Film Rites now have another project in the works: a comedy called, “Undercover Cop” that has Jason Segel attached to star. Even better, it’s being written by a recent on-the-rise Black List scribe.
While no official logline has been given, the film will be nostalgic for the 1980s and is inspired by the “true story of a former cop that infiltrated the New Jersey criminal underworld in the era of feathered hair, zipper jackets and Bruce Springsteen‘s ‘Born in the U.S.A.,’ ” says The Hollywood Reporter.
The script will be penned by Jason Micallef, who wrote “Butter,” the screenplay that came in at #3 on the 2008 Black List and hits theaters later this year starring Jennifer Garner, Hugh Jackman and Olivia Wilde, just to name a few.
Zaillian’s on an even bigger role. He’s coming off his adaptation of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” for David Fincher and is now stepping in to help save what is tentatively being referred to as “Moscow,” the floundering Jack Ryan reboot over at Paramount that has been through about four writers now.