Abigail Breslin will star in Peste which IM Global genre label Octane is financing. Mark Tonderai is directing and Cloverfield‘s Sheryll Clark is producing. Production is set for early September on the thriller that sees a teenager´s world turned upside down as a terrifying virus turns her friends and neighbors into vicious monsters. Peste is based on Barbara Marshal´s 2012 Black List screenplay. Breslin is repped by ICM and Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Adler & Feldman.
Epic Pictures Heads To Cannes With ‘The Last Scout´ And ‘Someone Marry Barry´
Epic Pictures Group has finalized the cast and director for The Last Scout. Written and directed by Paul Tanter (Jack Falls), The Last Scout stars Sean Maguire, Tim Russ, Harry Groener, Simon Phillips, Rebecca Ferdinando and Rita Ramnani. The film takes place seven years after Earth is destroyed by war when the survival of mankind depends on the crew of one ship searching the galaxy in the hope of finding a new world. Patrick Ewald and Shaked Berenson are producing for Epic Pictures, alongside Tanter, Phillips, Rob Weston and Alain Wildberger, with Lyndon Baldock, Anthony Maxwell and Patrick Maxwell executive producing. Epic is selling worldwide rights at Cannes. Principal photography has begun in Los Angeles. Epic Pictures Group als has acquired sales rights to the comedy Someone Marry Barry. Written and directed by Rob Pearlstein, the pic stars Tyler Labine, Damon Wayans, Jr., Lucy Punch, Hayes MacArthur, Thomas Middleditch, Frankie Shaw and Amanda Lund. Josephson Entertainment´s Barry Josephson produces along with Rob Pearlstein, and Marisa Polvino and Kate Cohen of Straight Up Films. Executive producers are Alexander Young, Madrose Productions´ Jeremy Bailer, and Marc H. Simon at Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard LLP.
Le Pacte will shake and stir Fleming, Duncan Jones´ biopic on the author who created James Bond. Jones and Roger Avary are writing the flick, based on Andrew Lycett´s Ian Fleming, The Man Behind James Bond, and casting has begun with a plan to start production this year. Oliver Simon and Daniel Baur of K5 Film, PalmStar Media Capita´s Kevin Frakes and Liberty Films´ Stuart Fenegan will produce the film in association with Jim Young and Robert Laycock of the Fleming estate. K5 International is selling worldwide rights.
Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions has scored a multi-territory deal with Foresight Unlimited on Justin Timberlake-starrer Spinning Gold. The biopic about 1970s record icon Neil Bogart has been acquired by SPWA in Latin America, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Greece. It´s also in talks for other major markets. Film starts shooting early next year and Timberlake is in Cannes tonight to host a party around the picture.
Benaroya Pictures and Miscellaneous Entertainment´s new sales outfit IFT has boarded Stephen King adaptation Cell starring John Cusack. Benaroya is financing and co-producing the Tod “Kip” Williams-directed thriller that takes off when a powerful signal is broadcast across mobile networks worldwide, re-programming cell phone users´ minds. Richard Saperstein and Michael Benaroya are producing with The Genre Company´s Brian Witten and Shara Kay. Marina Grasic and Jan Korbelin of Cargo Entertainment exec produce. Principal photography starts in September.
Scandianvian Sales outfit TrustNordisk has begun pre-sales here in Cannes on Norwegian director Hans Petter Moland´s dark action-comedy The Prize Idiot. The film stars Stellan Skarsgård, Bruno Ganz, Kon-Tiki‘s Pål Sverre Hagen and Borgen‘s Birgitte Hjort Sørensen. German rights have gone to Neue Visionen Filmverleih. Skarsgård plays a carefree snow blower until the death of his son puts him in the middle of a drug war between the Norwegian mafia and the Serbians. Kim Fupz Aakesson wrote the script and producers are Finn Gjerdrum and Stein B. Kvae from Paradox Film 2 AS. Domestic release is scheduled for February 2014.