News

Updated With Full List Of Scripts, Writers, And Reps: Catherine The Great, about the rise and life of the famous (sometimes notorious) 18th-Century Russian monarch, was the top vote-getter among 70 scripts chosen for the 2014 Black List of the year’s best un-produced scripts. The screenplay, by Los Angeles writer and producer Kristina Lauren Anderson, was announced as part of an hour-plus process on Twitter and YouTube this morning.

Each of the 70 screenplays on this 10th annual list was chosen by a group of 250 development executives, agents and other Hollywood insiders as among the year’s best un-produced scripts in a process overseen by Franklin Leonard of http://www.blcklst.com. Anderson’s screenplay received 51 votes.

Other notables in the list include writer/actor/director Kenneth Lonergan with Manchester-By-The-Sea, which is being produced by Matt Damon and Chris Moore. Randall Green had two scripts make the list, The Swimsuit Issue and Cartoon Girl.

Exclusive: Fox is wrapping up a deal for Kieran Fitzgerald to write the script for a reality-based disaster movie loosely inspired by the BBC faux-documentary The Day Britain Stopped. It will be developed as a potential directing vehicle for Ridley Scott. Film Rites’ Steve Zaillian & Garrett Basch are producing with Scott Free’s Scott, Michael Schaefer, and Elishia Holmes. Kira Goldberg is overseeing for the studio. Fitzgerald is currently adapting The Tiger for Plan B and Focus. He garnered attention for his script Bambi, based on the life of former CIA agent Luis Posada. He’s repped by CAA. Film Rites & Scott Free both have first-look deals at Fox, where they also have Wool in development with J Blakeson attached to adapt and direct. Zaillian and Scott previously teamed on American Gangster.

While Danny Boyle is busy celebrating the history of Great Britain with giant inflatable arm-flailing Voldemorts, Ridley Scott and Steve Zaillian are preparing to explore what might happen if the worst case travel scenario crippled the country’s infrastructure. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the project was born from a 2003 dramatized documentary called The Day Britain Stopped which aired on the BBC. The villain of the feature is us – the hordes of commuting individuals that make up the mass clogging overtaxed transportation routes. There’s a worker strike, a train accident and the country’s roads are transformed into a parking lot during one of the busiest and coldest times of year. Scott and Zaillian will be using the film as inspiration for their take, which is set up at Fox. The last time these two got together it was for American Gangster, but it’s still unclear whether Denzel Washington will play the A3212 into London...

This week:

Get ready for some despicable Minions; Jeremy Renner and Bill Condon decide to plug WikiLeaks; Steve Zaillian and Ridley Scott remember The Day Britain Stopped; and Jon Favreau occupies Wall Street.

Despicable Me did anything but despicable business at the box office. The animated film scored a mighty $251 million domestically and another $291 million elsewhere around the globe. A sequel is in the works, but there’s also news that a spin-off centered on the minions – possibly titled The Minions – is coming.

According to Deadline:

“The film is an original story that will introduce new characters and reprise others that originated in Despicable Me, but the focus is on the antics of the yellow fellows as they interact with human characters.”

The plan is for Despicable Me 2 to ...

Click to continue reading Movie News Wrap Up: July 28th, 2012...

Steve Zaillian had a pretty damn amazing year last year. While he is certainly no stranger to success - he's been nominated for Oscars three different times and won in 1994 for his work on Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List - last year he had a hand in the screenplays for both Moneyball (for which he earned his fourth Oscar nod) and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. And now he's parlaying his continued success into a new collaboration with Ridley Scott. According to THR, the writer and director are set to team up to produce The Day Britain Stopped, a disaster thriller that was originally made as a 2003 BBC pseudo-documentary. While the original film was about how a train strike set off a powder keg that led to a "meltdown of the country.s transport system," it would seem that Scott and Zaillian have a bigger picture in mind as...

Ridley Scott may be 74 years old, but the filmmaker isn’t even contemplating retirement. At a time when most people his age are golfing, writing angry letters to the newspaper about kids and their loud music, and scoping out the best early-bird buffet specials, Scott is lining up projects left and right. Today’s news adds yet another to the list. According to a recently published THR story, Scott will team with writer Steve Zaillian to produce an updated version of the 2003 docudrama The Day Britain Stopped for Fox. The original BBC program focused on a fictional disaster that brought the country to its knees – one that began with something as simple as a train-workers strike. Scott and Zaillian’s updated take on the material won’t be a...

Read More...

Director Ridley Scott and screenwriter Steve Zaillian, who previously collaborated on "American Gangster," are set to produce a project for Fox inspired by 2003 BBC docudrama "The Day Britain Stopped," which turned on the fictional disaster of a London train strike. (They insist it is not a remake.) The train strike acts as the first link in a chain reaction of disasters that completely incapacitates Britain. Though both Scott and Zaillian are attached, at the moment the former has no plans of directing, nor the latter of writing. Both have deals with Fox. Scott is currently preparing for Cormac McCarthy's first foray into original screenwriting, "The Counselor," which stars Michael Fassbender (apparently Scott loved his brilliant turn as the Peter O'Toole-mimicking robot in "Prometheus" as much as everyone else), Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz. Zaillian's Film Rites, which is one of the producers...

"American Gangster" director Ridley Scott and scribe Steve Zaillian have acquired feature film rights to the 2003 BBC pseudo-documentary "The Day Britain Stopped" which their Scott Free and Film Rites companies are setting up at 20th Century Fox says The Hollywood Reporter.

Gabriel Range's original BBC2 telemovie took place around a fictional disaster, in which a train strike is the first in a chain of events that led to a meltdown of the country’s transport system.

This new film will be "inspired" by the original rather than being an out and out remake, and the scale will be much bigger - involving a "manmade disaster igniting a global catastophe".

A writer is being sought to adapt the script.

Ridley Scott is planning an adaptation of The Day Britain Stopped. The director will produce a disaster movie for 20th Century Fox based on the 2003 BBC fictional documentary drama alongside Steve Zaillian, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The original docudrama was based around a catastrophic event which sees all of Britain's transport systems grind to a halt on a freezing December day. Services are crippled across the country as major and minor accidents prevent essential workers including doctors, nurses, air traffic controllers (more)...

With his proto-Alien prequel Prometheus a nominal success ($125 million dollars box office domestic, $175 million from foreign venues), Ridley Scott has attached his name to another possible film project. As the 74-year-old director gears up to shoot The Counselor with Brad Pitt this fall, he has partnered with his American Gangster screenwriter Steve Zaillian on a big screen remake of The Day Britain Stopped.

The project is based on a 2003 mockumentary which chronicled the disasterous consequences for U.K. transportation from a series of interconnected accidents. After a tragic train derailment causes the nation's railway workers to stage a strike, the roadways of Britain become snarled with gridlock ver a holiday weekend. The rerouting of critical personnel causes additional logistical chaos, resulting in a greater tragedy and bringing all of the airways, roads and railways to a complete standstill.

Via the initial report, Scott and Zaillian want to expand the...

Director Ridley Scott is teaming up with screenwriter Steve Zaillian (Schindler's List) to adapt the 2003 BBC TV movie drama The Day Britain Stopped into a feature film. The project is set up at 20th Century Fox and they will be using the original story on which the series is based, so technically it won't be a remake.

The story follows a fictional disaster, in which a train strike is the first in a chain of events that leads to a meltdown of the country’s transport system.

Scott and Zaillian are a couple of very talented individuals, and I'm sure they'll end up delivering a fantastic film based on this story. I look forward to anything Scott does; he's just one of the most talented filmmakers working today. He's got a few other films on his plate, like The Counselor and a Blade Runner sequel.

Read through BBC description of the story,...

I can only hope, for the man’s own sake, that Ridley Scott doesn’t add another project to his massive schedule — The Counselor, Prometheus 2, Blade Runner 2, Monopoly, a Gertrude Bell biopic, maybe even a western — but, better yet, it still wouldn’t dilute my interest in what’s been cooking at his offices.

According to THR, Scott and his American Gangster scribe, Steve Zaillian, are planning to adapt The Day Britain Stopped, a 2003 mockumentary that was produced for the BBC. The plan calls for the two to produce through their respective Scott Free Productions and Film Rites, though Zaillian‘s duties will not go past this; the soon-to-be-found writer will be asked to “[use] a manmade disaster to ignite a global catastophe” — speaking in terms of the story, needless to say — much like the original production. Now, to only find someone capable of doing that.

There lies potential for the...

England’s Ridley Scott and Fresno, California’s Steve Zaillian are re-teaming for “The Day Britain Stopped”, a, we assume, big-budget disaster movie that will be inspired by the 2003 BBC “pseudo-documentary” of the same name. That 2003 BBC film was written and directed by Gabriel Range, and took place in the near future, where a rail strike, traffic congestion and a mid-air plane collision causes the UK’s transport system to come to a halt. In the Scott and Zaillian version, a “manmade disaster” causes a global catastophe. The last time I heard the phrase “manmade disaster”, it was the Obama Administration’s new PC term for terrorism. Is that what Scott and Zaillian are going for? An act of terrorism spins the country out of control and threatens the rest of the world as a result? The boys will be producing, and a writer is currently being sought to adapt their ideas.

Ridley Scott is adding yet another project to his immense docket, but this time he’ll only be involved as a producer. Scott is teaming up with screenwriter Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List, Moneyball) to produce a reimagining of BBC’s pseudo-documentary The Day Britain Stopped. The original film, which could aptly be described as a faux-documentary, centered around a fictional disaster that is set into motion when Britain’s transport system melts down. Hit the jump for more, including an embed of the original film. This isn’t the first time that Scott and Zaillian have collaborated, as Scott previously directed American Gangster based on a screenplay that Zaillian wrote. Per THR, the two are currently looking for a writer to pen the disaster project for 20th Century Fox, but they stress that their iteration is more inspired by the first film instead of being a straightforward remake. Their...

As underclassmen like Edgar Wright rush his fraternity of hoarding filmmakers, Ridley Scott has been forced to step up his own binge-directing, adding another to a list of pending projects that lately has dwindled to just Cormac McCarthy's The Counselor and that Blade Runner sequel, lest his brothers roust him for being a pussy. Scott has re-teamed with prolific, trophy-attracting screenwriter Stephen Zaillian—who last worked with Scott on American Gangster—to develop a disaster film based on the BBC's 2003 mockumentary The Day Britain Stopped, which imagines a catastrophic series of train strikes and traffic jams that ...

Everyone knows director Ridley Scott, but you may not be quite as familiar with the name Steve Zaillian. He's a writer with an impressive list of credits that include Schindler's List, Clear and Present Danger, Gangs of New York,, and Moneyball. THR reports Zallian and Scott are joining forces to produce a disaster movie called The Day Britain Stopped, which is inspired by (and not quite a remake of) a 2003 BBC production of the same name that was half documentary, half narrative and told the story of a fictional disaster that led to the crippling of the country's transportation and the fallout that followed. More below! If you're interested, you can watch the full original film from director Gabriel Range in its entirety: Zallian also wrote American Gangster, the Denzel Washington film that Scott directed back in 2007, so it's clear that these guys have a solid working relationship. The duo...

Ridley Scott and Steven Zaillian are teaming up to produce The Day Britain Stopped for 20th Century Fox.

The project is based on the 2003 BBC pseudo-documentary of the same name, that followed a fake disaster which leads to a complete breakdown of England's transportation system. Insiders stressed that this new version will not be a remake, but will be inspired by the original.

Ridley Scott and Steven Zaillian will produce through their Scott Free and Film Rites production companies, with Garrett Basch executive producing. They are both seeking a screenwriter to tackle the script. Gabriel Range wrote and directed the original version.

Ridley Scott and Steven Zaillian last teamed up with the 2007 crime drama American Gangster, which Ridley Scott directed from Steven Zaillian's screenplay.

No production schedule was given.

With the Olympics gearing up to kick off tomorrow, London's public transit service has been under some serious strain and scrutiny in the past week as the world descends on the city for the games. Numerous delays have already been reported, with traffic in the city only due to increase in the coming days and weeks. So it's a bit ironic to think that nearly a decade ago, this was (sort of) the foundation of a disaster flick. In 2003, BBC dropped the mock doc drama "The Day Britain Stopped," telling the story of what happens to the country when a train strike and a massive traffic jam are just the beginning in a series of events that bring the entire infrastructure to the breaking point. And Ridley Scott and writer Steve Zaillian see the opportunity to remake it. THR reports the pair have snagged the rights to the movie, from...

While those in charge of London’s logistics are hoping everything goes without a hitch for the Olympics, Ridley Scott is thinking a little differently. He and Steven Zaillian have picked up the rights to 2003’s docudrama The Day Britain Stopped, with the intent of producing a disaster film version for Fox.The Hollywood Reporter cautions that this won’t be a direct remake of the TV movie that aired on the Beeb and saw a massive train strike as the first domino in a link that ended up crippling the country – but that it’ll take that story as inspiration to build a fresh story.Despite his screenwriting experience, Zaillian apparently doesn’t plan to work on the script himself, as the pair is now on the hunt for a writer to make it work. And from the sounds of it, this probably won’t be one that Scott directs,...

Ridley Scott and Steve Zaillian have bought the rights to BBC docu-drama The Day Britain Stopped and will bring it to the big screen at 20th Century Fox. The duo, who have worked together twice before on Hannibal and American Gangster, will produce the film but neither will write or direct it. The Day Britain Stopped was a 2003 BBC television film shown in a documentary format. The story was based around a fictional disaster in which a train strike is the first in a chain of events that...

Ridley Scott and Steve Zaillian have plans to produce a feature version of the 2003 BBC drama documentary The Day Britain Stopped , says a story at The Hollywood Reporter . They have the project set up at 20th Century Fox. The original program took place in the very near future (later that same year) and was, at the time, officially described by the BBC as follows: In the film, Britain is facing a national crisis by the end of 2003; the country's transport infrastructure is unable to cope with the traffic volumes it faced on a daily basis. Our roads are the most congested in Europe, our skies the busiest in the world and the rail network is lurching from disaster to disaster. Total collapse of all these systems was just around the corner - the warning signs were...

As London braces for Friday's start of the Summer Olympics, disaster-minded authorities are trying to imagine the worst-case scenario. So are Ridley Scott and Steve Zaillian. The pair has acquired big-screen rights to the 2003 BBC pseudo-documentary The Day Britain Stopped and have set the project up at Twentieth Century Fox. A source stressed that the film would not be a remake but is more inspired by the original. The telefilm took place around a fictional disaster, in which a train strike is the first in a chain of events that led to a meltdown of

read more...

Planning logistics and hiring crew for film productions like The Hurt Locker is hard graft with little in the way of glitter, Donall McCusker tells Jill Insley

Most people have pictures of their children, pets and partners on their iPhone. Not Donall McCusker: his gallery includes soldiers hefting large guns, profile shots of Arabic-looking men and perfectly timed snaps of explosions – the kind of thing that would immediately lead to his detention if spotted by airport security staff.

It might take him some time to convince them of his innocence: he was brought up in Belfast and still has a distinct accent which, combined with the photos, might start alarm bells ringing.

But McCusker has the best reason in the world to be carrying these photos: he was co-producer on the war film The Hurt Locker, which picked up six Academy Awards this year, and his photos are all...

• Death of a President is director Gabriel Range’s speculative documentary set in December, 2008, that tells the story of the assassination of President George W. Bush on October 19, 2007. Part political thriller, part murder mystery, Range’s film documents the President’s ill-fated trip to Chicago to make a speech about economics, the violent protest that ensues outside, the shooting of the President, and the search for the assassin. Range’s previous films include the BBC drama The Day Britain Stopped and The Man Who Broke Britain, both of which employed the same fictional documentary technique seen in Death of a President. Both films garnered Range awards, record-breaking television ratings, and critical acclaim. Death of a President has already aired on British television and screened at the 006 Toronto International Film festival where it won the International Critics Prize. Range achieves the challenge of creating the fictional assassination of the current

...