We’re not sure what’s in the water right now, but in the last 48 hours or so, it seems every director around the world is lining up new gigs. Maybe they’re looking for a summer project to keep them busy? We have no idea, but we’ll run them down, so let’s get to it:
"Crazy Heart" and "Out Of The Furnace" director Scott Cooper is looking for another intense drama to tell. This time he’ll helm the true story tale "about the Granite Mountain Hotshots firefighter crew that perished in a wildfire that blazed in Prescott, AZ. In June, 2013, 19 members of the elite firefighting crew perished while fighting the Yarnell Hill wildfire. Only one of them survived in what became the largest loss of firefighters since 9/11 and the greatest loss of wild-land firefighters in 80-years." Ken Nolan ("Black Hawk Down") will write the script. [Deadline]
Sarah Polley ("Away From Her," "Take This Waltz") has been hired by Paramount to adapt "The Fault In Our Stars" author John Greene‘s "Looking For Alaska." It’s another teen story, following "16-year old Miles Halter, who, after an antiseptic adolescence in Florida, moves to a boarding school in Alabama and learns coming of age lessons from his roommate and his beautiful and mysterious best friend, Alaska Young. She enthralls Miles with stories of adventurous and self-destructive behavior–and teaches him to drink, smoke, and plot elaborate pranks against the school’s rich preppies–but despite their adulation for her, they can tell that she is unhappy and perhaps headed for big trouble." Polley is only writing the script for now though there will be a "conversation" later on about her directing. [Deadline]
Agnieszka Holland is moving on to her next feature, and it has the best title we’ve heard in ages: "Drive Your Plough Over the Bones of the Dead." It’s based on the novel by Olga Tokarczuk, with the story following "Janina, a former engineer who is now a vegetarian astrologer. One night, she stumbles upon the corpse of a neighbour who had been an avid hunter. This death is certainly a puzzling one, given the fact that the only footprints visible are those of a roe deer. The dead bodies of other residents are then discovered, and they all have one thing in common: all of the dead people were hunters. Janina attempts to convince the police that there are wild animals going around killing humans, but she is the one who becomes the prime suspect in the investigators’ opinion…" Funding is in place and production begins at the end of the year, weather permitting. [Cineuropa]
Julie Taymor is returning with a filmed adaptation of her stage show for "A Midsummer’s Night Dream." “It’s not like ‘Live From the Met,’ ” she explained. “This is even more thorough. We shot all performances straight through, putting cameras in different positions at each show, and then in the daytime we went onstage with handheld cameras. I think it’s fairly unusual, because it is a real hybrid of live theater and film. It’s very cinematic. There are no visual effects — they’re all live.” The movie will likely premiere at TIFF. [Vulture]
With "The Amazing Spider-Man 3" rumored to be delayed to 2017, director Marc Webb is taking a detour to TV to helm the pilot for Showtime‘s "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend." The half-hour comedy will follow "Rebecca, a driven and ambitious young professional who may or may not be crazy when she decides to leave everything – her high paying job and amazing Manhattan apartment – behind in order to find love and happiness, in West Covina, CA." CRAZY! [Bleeding Cool]
While Joe Carnahan‘s "Stretch" continues to be MIA, the director is moving on to a new gig, taking over the reins of Sony‘s "Five Against A Bullet." Once set to star Bruce Willis, "the story follows five bodyguards hired to protect a Mexican politician over the course of a contentious election after his father is murdered by a drug cartel." Alex Litvak wrote the initial script, but Carahan will pen a new one. [The Wrap]
Get ready for an alternate reality of world history. "The Help" director Tate Taylor will helm “In the Event of a Moon Disaster,” which has a script from Mike Jones inspired by William Safire‘s speech written to be read by President Nixon in case the Apollo 11 mission failed. And yes, the movie will pretend things didn’t turn out so well. Must be one helluva speech. [The Wrap]
