Steven Knight

DreamWorks and Working Title Set Steven Knight to Write New Adaptation of REBECCA

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: February 9th, 2012 at 4:37 pm

A new version of Rebecca is on its way courtesy of DreamWorks and Working Title. The Gothic novel by Daphne Du Maurier was famously adapted into a Best Picture winner by Alfred Hitchcock in 1940, and now Showblitz reports that Eastern Promises scribe Steven Knight has been tapped to pen a new adaptation. Knight will return to Du Maurier’s novel for the update, which centers on a young woman who marries a rich widower, only to find that her husband’s late wife still haunts their mansion estate. I’m not the biggest fan of Du Maurier’s novel, but there’s something encouraging about the fact that DreamWorks and Working Title are bent on making a Gothic drama. Though in lesser hands Rebecca could easily turn into a cheap spook-fest, Knight is a promising addition. In a film landscape filled with sequels and explosions, I’m pulling for something different with Rebecca.

Obviously it’s early in the game, so no director is attached at the moment. Knight has written a few high profile scripts as of late, including the Dan Brown adaptation The Lost Symbol and an untitled thriller starring Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall. He’s set to make his directorial debut on the thriller Hummingbird with Jason Statham in the lead. Hit the jump to read a synopsis for Du Maurier’s Rebecca.

Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall to Star in Untitled International Thriller

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: February 2nd, 2012 at 11:22 am

Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall are set to team up for an untitled international suspense thriller. Focus Features and Working Title films are set to produce the flick, with Boy A helmer John Crowley onboard to direct. The film centers on two ex-lovers who “find their loyalties tested and their lives at risk when they are joined together on the defense team in a terrorism trial.” The film is described as a nail-biting thriller that also plays as an emotional roller coaster. Bana and Hall are stellar performers and the script comes from Eastern Promises scribe Steven Knight, so this one has the ingredients for quite the flick. Production is set to begin in April.

Bana has a number of projects on the horizon, including the thriller Blackbird, the heist pic Brilliant, and he’s next set to play Elvis Presley in Elvis & Nixon. As for Hall, she’ll next be seen in Stephen Frears’ gambling dramedy Lay the Favorite.  Hit the jump for the press release.

Mark Romanek the Frontrunner to Direct Adaptation of Dan Brown’s THE LOST SYMBOL

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: October 19th, 2011 at 2:00 pm

I don’t know if this news should make me excited or sad.  Deadline reports that talented director Mark Romanek (Never Let Me Go) is the frontrunner to helm the adaptation of Dan Brown’s latest Robert Langdon novel The Lost Symbol.  Ron Howard directed the prior Langdon books The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons.  Both movies took themselves far too seriously and also suffered from being based on awful books.  I haven’t picked up The Lost Symbol because I don’t really care what exposition machine and master of trivial history Robert Langdon has to spew for 528 pages.

Hit the jump for more on the film along with a synopsis.

Steven Knight to Make Directing Debut on HUMMINGBIRD

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: April 11th, 2011 at 1:30 pm

Screenwriter Steven Knight (Eastern Promises) is set to make his directing debut on his script for the thriller Hummingbird.  Deadline reports that the film “follows a damaged ex-special forces soldier, who finds himself trapped in the criminal underworld, and assumes another man’s identity to exact revenge.”  The story is a good fit for Knight whose previous credits also include Stephen Frears’ Dirty Pretty Things.

While I dug Dirty Pretty Things, I think Eastern Promises had a weak script and worked more because of the direction and the performances.  However, regardless of what I think of his track record (and it’s tough to judge writers solely by their credits due to the WGA’s bizarre arbitration rules), Knight is currently one of Hollywood’s hottest screenwriters.  He’s working on the script for a remake of Le Cercle Rouge, a Robert F. Kennedy biopic, the Bobby Fischer drama Pawn Sacrifice, and Eastern Promises 2.  Filming on Hummingbird is expected to begin this fall.

Jaume Collet-Serra to Direct LE CERCLE ROUGE Remake, RED CIRCLE

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: February 18th, 2011 at 8:37 am

Jaume Collet-Serra is heating up as a director even though his latest film, Unknown, is a flaccid, unimaginative thriller (his previous film, Orphan, isn’t renown as a great piece of cinema either).  Last week we reported that he was attached to helm Harker, a re-imagining of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.  Now Deadline is reporting that he’s making a deal to direct Red Circle, a remake of the classic 1970 Jean-Pierre Melville heist flick Le Cercle Rouge.  This remake is made worse by the fact that Eastern Promises screenwriter Steven Knight is handling the script (Eastern Promises works because of Cronenberg and Mortensen and in spite of the weak screenplay).

Deadline reports that Collet-Serra’s popularity comes from delivering Unknown for $30 million and with international box office potential.  Red Circle will be set in Hong Kong, but Collet-Serra hasn’t settled yet on what his next project will be.  For those unfamiliar with Le Cercle Rouge, hit the jump for a synopsis.

Author Dan Brown Is Rewriting THE LOST SYMBOL; Ron Howard and Tom Hanks Not Confirmed for Sequel

by Kevin Panasiewicz    Posted: December 20th, 2010 at 6:25 pm

Dan Brown has taken over the reins for the screen adaptation of The Lost Symbol, the third novel in his wildly profitable and embarrassingly controversial series about Harvard symbologist-turned-Indiana Jones wannabe Robert Langdon, following The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons.  This is Brown’s first attempt at screenwriting after Oscar-nominated scribe Steven Knight (Eastern Promises) had first swing at the project.

Neither franchise star Tom Hanks nor Ron Howard, director of the previous installments, has officially signed on to the sequel, although Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment will again handle production duties.  Howard is currently committed to helm the first flick in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, while Hanks is confirmed for Kathryn Bigelow’s (The Hurt Locker) post-Best Picture endeavor Triple Frontier.  If both talents are expected to return, Risky Business suggests we can expect The Lost Symbol on the silver screen in the summer of 2013.  Hit the jump for the official synopsis of The Lost Symbol.

David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen Reteaming for EASTERN PROMISES Sequel

by Keith Demko    Posted: March 27th, 2010 at 11:03 am

If there’s one sequel I could get completely behind, it would certainly be one for Eastern Promises, especially since all the key components seem to be coming together for the second go-round.

Indeed, Deadline is reporting the as-yet-untitled sequel will be a reunion of star Viggo Mortensen, director David Cronenberg and scribe Steven Knight, who wrote the script for the engaging original. The only things missing so far are Naomi Watts and any mention of just what direction this new gangster tale from London’s extremely seedy underbelly will take.

The film is set up at Focus Features with hopes to begin filming next winter, so definitely stay tuned for more details about this as we get them, and hit the jump to find out what else frequent collaborators Cronenberg and Mortensen are up to.

Director David Fincher to Helm Bobby Fischer Biopic PAWN SACRIFICE

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: March 14th, 2010 at 10:25 pm

David Fincher is attached to direct the Bobby Fischer biopic Pawn Sacrifice for Columbia.  As we reported over the weekend, Fincher is keeping busy as he’s also circling an adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in addition to his continuing efforts to make a new version of Heavy Metal a reality.  Columbia’s eager to be in business with Fincher again as the studio was pleased with his work on The Social Network, which is about the creation of Facebook.

According to Variety, Sacrifice would follow Fischer’s life story up to his historic world championship match against Boris Spassky.  But I think the biggest challenge in making a Fischer biopic is that he was a complete douchebag.  When Fischer first heard about 9/11, he responded, “This is all wonderful news,” and hoped that a coup d’état of the US government would lead to the execution of, “hundreds of thousands of American Jewish ring-leaders.”  He also wrote a letter to Osama Bin Laden celebrating their shared interests of hating Jews and America (although he probably never sent it as Bin Laden’s not really in the White Pages so it’s tough to get an address).

Steven Knight (Eastern Promises) recently turned in a screenplay and I trust that Fincher is one of the few people that could make a compelling movie about a brilliant chess player/bat-shit insane hate-fountain.

Matt Damon to Star in Robert F. Kennedy Biopic

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: February 23rd, 2010 at 10:20 pm

Matt Damon has been cast to play Robert F. Kennedy in a biopic about the late politician.  Deadline reports that the film will be based on the Evan Thomas biography His Life. Gary Ross (Seabiscuit) will direct from a screenplay by Steven Knight (Eastern Promises).  The biopic will span Kennedy’s ascent from his brother’s shadow to a powerful nation figure before being assassinated during his 1968 campaign for President.

This may finally be Damon’s shot at a long-deserved Oscar.  Obviously, I haven’t read the script and a million things can happen between now and the finished film, but on paper, you have a respected, talented, and bankable actor playing a larger-than-life American icon.  The Academy becomes filled with tiny orgasms over that kind of project.  While Damon was nominated this year for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of South African rugby star Francois Pienaar in Clint Eastwood’s Invictus, that doesn’t even begin to compare to playing Robert F. Kennedy.  Damon is the goods and RFK’s story is worth telling so it falls to Ross and Knight to live up to the potential of this project.

Damon is currently set to star in Contagion for Steven Soderbergh, True Grit for the Coen Brothers, Hereafter for Clint Eastwood, and will next be seen in Paul Greengrass’ Green Zone, which hits theaters on March 12th.

Columbia Pictures is Searching for THE LOST SYMBOL; Hires Steven Knight to Write the Third DA VINCI CODE Movie

by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub    Posted: February 4th, 2010 at 9:12 am

In a surprise to no one, Columbia Pictures has announced they’re moving forward on a film adaptation of Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol and Steven Knight (Dirty Pretty Things, Shutter Island, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader) will write the script.  The third book in the Da Vinci Code franchise was released last September and sold more than a million copies on its first day of release.  Like the previous two books in the franchise, The Lost Symbol finds Robert Langdon having to solve a problem in very little time. This time it’s in Washington, D.C. and it involves the Freemasons.

While reviews have not been kind on either The Da Vinci Code or Angels and Demons, the two films have grossed over a billion dollars at the worldwide box office (Da Vinci Code $758 million, Angels and Demons $486 million), so it makes a lot of business sense to make the movie.  According to Variety, Tom Hanks has not yet signed on to reprise the role, but I’d imagine if the script is good and the paycheck is large, we’ll see him as Robert Langdon next year.  Also, no word if Ron Howard will direct again.

THE THIRD MAN Remake Rumor – Are Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio Planning a Trip to Vienna?

by Adam Charles    Posted: October 23rd, 2009 at 4:32 pm

Well, you’ve been waiting for a big remake bombshell. One of those major “Don’t you DARE you touch that!!” kinds of licenses.  There have been some “relatively” big pictures to receive the remake treatment in recent memory, such as “The Day the Earth Stood Still” but nothing to really stand in disbelief at.  Not a “Citizen Kane”-esque level of audacity, but a recent rumor of there being a potential “The Third Man” remake starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire does tread dangerously close.  Luckily, if proven to be true, there may be some talent to pull this off.  Click on the jump, and let’s hop on this ferris wheel together.

Copyright ©2005 - 2012. All Rights Reserved. California web design