Joshua Oppenheimer

Universal in Talks to Acquire Mark Millar’s WAR HEROES

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: October 21st, 2011 at 3:10 pm

Universal is in negotiations to acquire War Heroes, based on the comic book by Mark Millar and Tony Harris. The book tells the story of a group of super soldiers who are created as part of an experimental program designed by the U.S. military to boost recruitment numbers and fight the war on terrorism. A group of the super soldiers goes rogue and forms a criminal enterprise, and one hero must rise to the occasion to prevent destruction. Heat Vision reports that Joshua Oppenheimer and Thomas Dean Donnelly, who are writing Marvel’s Doctor Strange, are in talks to handle script duties. Michael De Luca, Dana Brunetti (The Social Network) and Fast Five scribe Chris Morgan are producing. The project was originally set up at Columbia in 2008, but Universal has picked it up out of turnaround. Millar and Harris are onboard as executive producers.

Marvel Moving Forward with DOCTOR STRANGE Movie?

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: August 1st, 2011 at 11:30 am

As the Summer of Superheroes comes to an end with the release of Captain America: The First Avenger, audiences are starting to look to next year and beyond to see what costumed good-looking people will be gracing our theaters in the coming summers. While we expect more sequels to superheroes we’ve already been introduced to (and reboots of superheroes we’ve grown tired of), there may be a couple new superheroes on the way as well.

We’ve known that Marvel has been developing films based on lesser-known characters for a while now, but we’ve recently seen some movement on these “in-development” titles. Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish just turned in the latest draft for Ant-Man, and now word comes that a script for the Doctor Strange movie has been completed and Marvel is currently looking for a director. Hit the jump for more details.

Sony Ditches David O. Russell’s UNCHARTED Script; New Details on His Departure

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: May 27th, 2011 at 10:41 am

Yesterday, we reported that director David O. Russell had left Sony’s adaptation of their hit video game Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.  No reason was given at the time but it looked like O. Russell was moving on to direct an adaptation of The Silver Linings Playbook instead.  Today, 24 Frames has new details on O. Russell’s departure from the project.  It appears that O. Russell’s script was so long, ambitious, and perhaps most damning (from Sony’s perspective), it added plenty of characters who weren’t in the video game.  As we reported last year, O. Russell had apparently changed Nathan Drake from a lone adventurer to a participant in a family of treasure hunters.  That change wasn’t totally surprising considering that most of O. Russell’s filmography explores family dynamics, but for fans and for Sony, such a change is probably anathema to what they want: their video game faithfully transplanted to the big screen.

Sony will hire a new director and screenwriter to work from an earlier draft by Conan the Barbarian screenwriters Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer.  Mark Wahlberg has most likely left the project and a summer 2012 release looks doubtful.

Concept Art from VOLTRON Feature Pitch

by Brendan Bettinger    Posted: September 16th, 2010 at 9:49 pm

What’s this?  I thought the Voltron film had stalled indefinitely, content to settle for the animated Nicktoon series Voltron Force for the time being.  But Atlas Entertainment will not be satisfied.  The studio is reportedly putting together quite the pitch for a Voltron feature.  They’ve hired the screenwriting team of Thomas Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer, currently known as the writers of Sahara, perhaps soon known as the scribes behind Conan and Dr. Strange.

Part of that pitch includes some neat concept art, which you can check out after the jump.

Marvel Hires CONAN Writers to Pen the Screenplay for DR. STRANGE

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: June 21st, 2010 at 9:16 pm

Even though they merged almost a year ago, Disney and Marvel are now moving forward with their first in-house property: Dr. Strange.  Deadline reports that Marvel has hired Conan screenwriters Thomas Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer to pen the adaptation of the “Sorcerer Supreme”/Greenwich Village resident.  Strange is a standout in the Marvel Universe due to his use of magic and his range of trippy powers that don’t rely on physical strength.

Dr. Strange has been trying to reach the big screen for quite some time.  It’s been through Savoy Pictures, Columbia, Dimension and Paramount.  It’s attracted writers and directors including Guillermo del Toro, Stephen Norrington, David Goyer, and Wes Craven.  Donnelly and Oppenheimer are now part of that line and maybe they’ll be the last ones if this merger works like the two companies hope it will.  The two writers are also responsible for the adaptation of the video game Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and they also turned in a draft of Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens.  Hit the jump to learn more about Dr. Strange.

CONAN Remake Writers to Map UNCHARTED: DRAKE’S FORTUNE

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: November 23rd, 2009 at 11:20 am

After countless players marveled at Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and commented that it feels like a movie, Sony still wants the popular video game franchise to actually be a movie.  For those who aren’t aware of the property, the Uncharted franchise features the adventures of Nathan Drake as he hunts for treasure through exotic locations Last summer they hired Hitman 2 writer Kyle Ward to pen an adaptation even though Hitman 2 remains in development hell.  However, Latino Review reports that Ward is out and Conan writers Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer are in to script an adaptation of the first Uncharted game, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.

While LR doesn’t reveal their source, we trust their info and it’s clear that Sony wants to fast-track the production to seize not only on video game adaptation-mania, but because of the popularity of Uncharted 2 which is being called the Best Video Game of 2009.  Let’s just hope that Donnelly and Oppenheimer can get a good job done so we can move on to speculating and arguing about who should play protagonist (I say Nathan Fillion and so should you).

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