Randall Wallace (Secretariat) is in talks to develop the book Heaven Is for Real as a directing vehicle.  The novel is co-written by Nebraska pastor Todd Burpo, and tells of how his four-year-old son had slipped into unconsciousness during emergency surgery, and when he awoke, he said he had “met his miscarried sister, whom no one had told him about, and his great grandfather who died 30 years before Colton was born, then shared impossible-to-know details about each.”  He also described “the horse that only Jesus could ride, about how ‘reaaally big’ God and his chair are, and how the Holy Spirit ‘shoots down power’ from heaven to help us.”  Personally, I don’t see how this could possibly be a complete fabrication designed to exploit a four-year-old’s near-death experience to push a Christian agenda.

Hit the jump for more.

New Regency has picked up Gunslingers, a pitch from Braveheart screenwriter Randall Wallace, as a starring vehicle for Vince Vaughn, who is attached to produce.  According to Deadline, details are being kept under wraps, but the plot has heroic and iconic characters from the past collide in a modern day L.A.-set urban reality.  The movie “explores what real heroism is in a fun an unexpected way.”  Presumably, Vaughn will play a fast-talking know-it-all because he never gets cast as anything else.

Vaughn has a string of upcoming comedies where he apparently plays a fast-talking know-it-all.  He’ll next be seen in the R-rated sci-fi comedy The Watch (July 27), then he has a minor role in the atrocious Lay the Favorite, and he’s reteaming with Owen Wilson in Shawn Levy‘s The Internship.  As for Wallace, we reported back in February that he had re-teamed with Mel Gibson to co-write a new draft of the Viking movie Berserker.

Even though The Beaver flopped and his latest movie, Get the Gringo is going straight-to-DVD, Mel Gibson hasn’t given up his larger aspirations.  Two years ago, Mel Gibson was developing a Viking movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio, but the project fell apart when DiCaprio bailed in July 2010.  But at a recent American Cinematheque Q&A, Gibson says the project is alive and he’s written a new draft of the script with Braveheart screenwriter Randall Wallace.

Hit the jump for more, including an update on Gibson’s Judah Maccabee movie.

In a very brief report, Variety has revealed Lost executive producer Carlton Cuse is working with director Randall Wallace (Secretariat, We Were Soldiers) to develop a Civil War-set drama series at ABC. The are are co-writing the project with Wallace attached to direct the pilot if the network decides to pick it up. Barely any details are known other than it is viewed as an “event” series and will be set in Virginia. Not much to get excited about just yet, but it might be one to keep an eye on soon.

Hit the jump for details on a new medical drama from NBC.

Based on the remarkable true story, Secretariat chronicles the spectacular journey of the 1973 Triple Crown winner. When housewife and mother Penny Chenery Tweedy (Diane Lane) agrees to take over her ailing father’s Virginia-based Meadow Stables, despite her lack of horse-racing experience, her life’s course changed in a way that she never could have imagined. With the help of veteran trainer Lucien Laurin (John Malkovich), Penny managed to navigate the male-dominated business and succeed against all odds with what may be the greatest racehorse of all time.

In a press conference at the film’s press day, held at the Santa Anita Racetrack in Arcadia, Calif., co-stars Diane Lane and John Malkovich, along with director Randall Wallace, talked about bringing this incredible story to life and engaging the audience in a way that will have them cheering. Check out what they had to say after the jump.

Walt Disney has released three high resolution images from their upcoming horse racing “drama” Secretariat.  Since anyone who follows horse racing or watches ESPN knows the story of Secretariat (spoiler alert: he was the last Triple Crown winner back in 1973), I don’t know how this is a drama as it looks like a made for TV movie with great actors and a higher budget.  But Disney knows how to sell ice to Eskimos, so I’m sure by October I’ll want to check it out.  Hit the jump for the images and the info on the movie: