Scott Neustadter

Casting Call: Breslin to Star in THE CLASS PROJECT; Knightley and Collins Eyed for Lead in ROMEO & JULIET Re-Imagining, ROSALINE

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: August 17th, 2011 at 1:15 pm

We have a couple quick casting stories for you this afternoon.  First up, Abigail Breslin has signed on to star in the dark indie drama The Class Project.  Per Variety, “Story follows two sisters who, tired of their mother’s alcoholism and her abusive boyfriends, take matters into their own hands and plot to kill her.”  I want to make fun of that logline, but it actually sounds like an intriguing premise and a nice development for the Little Miss Sunshine star.  Stan Brooks will direct from a script by Fabrizio Filippo and Adam Till.  Shooting begins later this month.

Breslin recently did some voice acting for Gore Verbinski’s Rango and she’ll next be seen in Gerry Marshall’s massive romantic comedy New Year’s Eve.  Hit the jump for casting news on the Romeo & Juliet spinoff/re-imagining, Rosaline.

Thomas McDonnell to Star in Producer Shawn Levy’s THE SPECTACULAR NOW; 500 DAYS OF SUMMER Writing Team to Adapt

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: January 24th, 2011 at 5:16 pm

Actor Thomas McDonnell (The Forbidden Kingdom, Prom) has been tapped to play the lead in director Lee Toland Krieger’s (The Vicious Kind) adaptation of Tim Tharp’s novel The Spectacular Now. The project has been gestating for a few years, with Summer helmer Marc Webb working on it before he went off to work on the Spider-Man reboot.  Variety reports that Shawn Levy (Real Steel) will produce, with the script being written by the writing team behind (500) Days of Summer, Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber. The story revolves around a wild, hard-drinking hard-partying high-school senior who starts dating a shy, insecure girl who ends up changing his life. Hit the jump to read the synopsis of the novel.

Shawn Levy to Produce Revisionist Romeo and Juliet Story from (500) DAYS OF SUMMER Scribes

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: November 13th, 2010 at 2:29 am

It’s been a few years since we’ve seen a “hip” take on a Shakespeare classic, so we were due.  Shawn Levy, director/producer of Date Night and the upcoming Real Steel, has made a deal with Fox 2000 to produce an update of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, adapted from the novel Rosaline by Rebecca Serle .  Deadline reports that “this is a contemporary version set in a high school, and the famed story is told from the vantage point of Rosaline, the jilted ex-girlfriend of Romeo.” Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber will be writing the screenplay for the film.

Neustadter and Weber also wrote the refreshingly original (500) Days of Summer, as well as the less than refreshingly original Pink Panther 2.  Levy recently wrapped filming the Steven Spielberg-produced action/sci-fi flick Real Steel, with Hugh Jackman playing the lead.  Hit the jump for a bit more on the film.

ABC Looks Into Pilots For HOPSCOTCH And FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS

by Michael Sullivan    Posted: September 24th, 2009 at 10:54 pm

Sometimes it feels like I open ABC’s home page, and there’s a new show there to greet me, or more often than not, two. Well, now there are two new shows, and they’re not “Defying Gravity” or “Flash Forward.” Variety reports that ABC is toying around with pilots for Jerry Bruckheimer’s drama “Hopscotch” and David Dobkins (“Wedding Crashers”) comedy “Friends With Benefits.” More on the two shows and the various names attached to them after the jump.

(500) DAYS OF SUMMER Review

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: July 16th, 2009 at 11:54 pm

As the narrator of “(500) Days of Summer” tells us in its opening, “This is not a love story.”  That may be but it’s certainly one that’s in love with its own storytelling.  The biggest frustration is that while that storytelling is phenomenal, the story it’s telling is thin, unemotional, and isn’t worthy of Marc Webb’s brilliant direction.

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