Very occasionally, the trades do something known in the journalism trade as "burying the lede" — dropping a hint of a separate story in a piece about something else entirely, which can often be passed over at first glance. As it turns out, there's been a couple of examples of this in the last few days: potential projects hinted at by some names who've been in the news a lot of late.
First up is Joe Carnahan, who's currently topping the box office with his man vs. nature survival thriller "The Grey." The director made headlines this week by taking a remake of "Death Wish" as his next film, and he also has long-time dream projects "Killing Pablo" and "White Jazz" on his slate, along with original action script "Continue" and comic book adaptation "Nemesis" developing as well. But there's one more project as well; buried away in a Deadline story about Jason Bateman's production company Aggregate Films making a deal with Universal is the news that Carnahan will write and direct a project called "Cross Brothers" for Aggregate.
Carnahan and Bateman worked together on the 2007 actioner "Smokin' Aces" so it makes sense that the "Horrible Bosses" star would recruit a director with this much heat, although there's no other news on what the film will involve, as far as we can tell. Bateman's shingle has a number of other projects in the works including: "Identity Theft," a comedy co-starring the actor and Melissa McCarthy, to be directed by Seth Gordon ("Horrible Bosses"); the Jon Krakauer adaptation "Under The Banner Of Heaven" which will team Ron Howard and Dustin Lance Black; and another mysterious project, "The Disappeared," penned by Oren Uziel (the potential "Mortal Kombat" reboot), and Rob Letterman ("Gulliver's Travels").
Meanwhile, one of yesterday's bigger stories involved Emma Watson signing on to the next film by 'Harry Potter' helmer David Yates, "Your Voice In My Head," which will potentially co-star Tom Hanks or George Clooney. But with Deadline's story also came news on Yates' past and future projects. Warner Bros tried to court the helmer to direct "The Imitation Game," the biopic of closeted mathematical genius Alan Turing, who helped to crack the Enigma code during WW2, but found himself persecuted for his homosexuality after the war. The script topped last year's Black List, but Yates passed on the film, and the site report that the studio is now looking at Bryan Singer and Ralph Fiennes as potential helmers for the project, which had the interest of Leonardo DiCaprio at one point.
Singer is a solid choice (even if he's been off form for a long time), having a particular interest in gay subject matter, and his next film "Jack The Giant Killer," is at the studio (although it was just delayed nine months, which isn't a big confidence boost). Fiennes is a more interesting choice: he's only made one film to date, the currently-in-theaters "Coriolanus," but clearly he's impressed the studio. That being said, he's meant to be directing Dickens biopic "The Invisible Woman" with Felicity Jones next — would the studio be prepared to wait for him?
There's also news on Yates' next film after "Your Voice In My Head." He's got a number of other films in development, including a trilogy of Al Capone biopics with Tom Hardy called "Cicero" (which last we heard, was aiming for a start next year) and a big-screen version of "Doctor Who," but it looks like they're all a way off yet, as the director is seemingly attached to make "A Reliable Wife" for Sony. The film is an adaptation of Robert Goolrick's acclaimed 2009 novel, set in a remote Wisconsin town in the 1890s, about a wealthy man who advertises for the titular "reliable wife," only to find the successful applicant having designs on his life. The film is set up at Columbia, with Michael De Luca producing, but there's no other word at this point, other than that Yates intends to make the film when he's wrapped on "Your Voice In My Head."
