Universal Pictures has picked up the rights to Laura Hillenbrand’s bestselling non-fiction novel Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption.  According to Deadline, the studio is in talks with Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend) to direct and Crazy Heart director Scott Cooper to pen the script.  Universal also produced the adaptation of Hillenbrand’s previous book, Seabiscuit, and picked up $148 million worldwide plus seven Oscar nominations as a result.

Unbroken centers on Louis Zamperini, a former Olympian whose plane crashed at sea during World War II.  Zamperini and two crewmates floated adrift for 47 days and 2000 miles, he was caught by the Japanese Navy and sent to a POW camp where he was specifically targeted by a sadistic overseer.  Hit the jump for the synopsis of the book.

Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana (Brokeback Mountain) are in the early stages of scripting two period Westerns, both of them adaptations: The Color of Lightning and Empire of the Summer Moon.

Ridley Scott is on tap to direct Color of Lightning, in which a freed slave plots revenge against the Comanche and Kiowa who kill his son and take the rest of the family captive.  The story is loosely based on the same tale that is said to have inspired The Searchers.

Hit the jump fora full synopsis of The Color of Lighting, plus details on Empire of the Summer Moon.

Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart) is attached to direct a remake of the Argentine thriller Carancho from a script by Aaron Stockard (The Town).  Imagine Entertainment is readying their pitch with producer Roy Lee (How to Train Your Dragon) to shop out the rights out to studios this week.

The original thriller (loosely translated Vulture) centers on “an ambulance-chasing personal injury attorney (Ricardo Darin) who straddles the line between helping unfortunate accident victims and exploiting them by skimming the proceeds for his employer.”  Carancho has been earning positive notices — as evidenced by the Fantastic Fest awards bestowed on director Pablo Trapero and star Martina Gusman — thus meriting its designation as Argentina’s official Oscar submission for 2010.  Hit the jump for the official synopsis and trailer.

What do up-and-coming directors Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland), Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart) and Jose Padilha (Elite Squad) have in common? They are the top contenders being looked at by Warner Bros. to helm the upcoming Tales From the Gangster Squad. As unorthodox as it may sound, I applaud the studio for actually thinking outside the box on this one. At this point, though, Warner Bros. really has no choice, seeing how previous top-contenders Ben Affleck and Darren Aronofsky turned them down in favor of pursuing other projects – the latter opting for Wolverine 2.

Still, the idea of Fleischer directing a high-profile gangster epic described by producer Dan Lin to the LA Times as “the Untouchables on the streets of LA” is actually quite intriguing, to say the least – the man can do action and comedy. Cooper has been mentioned in conjunction with the project before, along with directors Paul Greengrass, Francis Lawrence, and even Martin Campbell. Former L.A. cop Will Beall (Castle) penned the screenplay, which centers on Sgt. John O’Mara and his attempts to bring down the gangster Micky Cohen in the late 1940s. More after the jump.

Earlier today, we reported that Warner Bros. was offering the director’s chair to Tales from the Gangster Squad to Darren Aronofsky after Ben Affleck decided to pass on the project.  Latino Review is now reporting that Warner Bros. has some other major names lined up should Aronofsky choose to go another way (a way that would most likely involve retractable adamantium claws).  The five other candidates for the gig are Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend), Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Ultimatum), Scott Cooper, Greg Berlanti (Life As We Know It), and Martin Campbell (Casino Royale).

Latino Review also reports that they’ve read the script for Tales from the Gangster Squad and “it’s all sorts of kickass.”  The story centers on Sgt. John O’ Mara and his off-the-record gang of LAPD officers who attempt to bring down legendary gangster Micky Cohen in the late 1940s.

Jeff Bridges has been the best thing about a lot of movies for years, so it’s only fitting that he finally got his Oscar. From Fearless to The Fisher King, from King Kong to Cutter’s Way, his list of great performances is legion, and rarely does he phone it in. For Crazy Heart, Bridges plays a washed-up drunk of a country music singer named Bad Blake, and the film charts his relationship with Jane Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal) as he finds himself at a dead end creatively and physically. It’s a lived-in and vivid performance, and it elevates a familiar tale with the gravitas of a great performer. My review of Crazy Heart is after the jump.

Robert Duvall dropped some very interesting knowledge at a recent Get Low press junket–namely, that Crazy Heart director Scott Cooper has been chatting with Brad Pitt about bring the infamous Hatfield/McCoy family feud to the cinemas.  According to Hollywood Elsewhere, Eric Roth (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) has assembled a script–appropriately titled The Hatfields and the Mccoys–with roles set aside for Duvall and Pitt.  Newly-minted Oscar-winner T-Bone Burnett would re-team with his Crazy Heart boss to provide the soundtrack.

If you’d like to learn a little more about the heated interactions between the Hatfields and the McCoys (I know I would!), I invite you to hit the jump.

As I wrote when I posted my video interviews with Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal, currently playing in limited release is Fox Searchlight’s Crazy Heart.  Originally scheduled for release next year, Fox Searchlight has mounted an impressive last minute campaign to get the film into theaters as they’re trying to get Jeff Bridges his long deserved Oscar.

In Crazy Heart, Jeff Bridges stars as the anti-hero Bad Blake in the debut feature film from writer-director Scott Cooper.  Bad Blake is a broken-down, hard-living country music singer who’s had way too many marriages, far too many years on the road and one too many drinks way too many times. And yet, Bad can’t help but reach for salvation with the help of Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a journalist who discovers the real man behind the musician.

While the story of a musician overcoming his demons has been told many times, the buzz surrounding Jeff Bridges performance is well deserved.  He’s great as Bad Blake and I think it’s a sure bet he’ll be nominated for an Oscar.  So to help promote the film, I recently got to speak with Robert Duvall.  We talked about his amazing career and what movies he always gets recognize for, why he wanted to make Crazy Heart, the struggle to find money for indie films, and a lot more:

Opening December 16th is Fox Searchlight’s Crazy Heart.  If you haven’t heard about the film…it’s understandable.  Originally scheduled for release next year, Fox Searchlight has mounted an impressive last minute campaign to get the film into theaters this year as they’re trying to get Jeff Bridges his long deserved Oscar.

But let me back up a second.  First, you might want to read the synopsis:

Jeff Bridges stars as the richly comic, semi-tragic romantic anti-hero Bad Blake in the debut feature film Crazy Heart from writer-director Scott Cooper.  Bad Blake is a broken-down, hard-living country music singer who’s had way too many marriages, far too many years on the road and one too many drinks way too many times. And yet, Bad can’t help but reach for salvation with the help of Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a journalist who discovers the real man behind the musician.  As he struggles down the road of redemption, Bad learns the hard way just how tough life can be on one man’s crazy heart.

I saw the film last week and the buzz surrounding Jeff Bridges performance is well deserved.  He’s great as Bad Blake, unfortunately, the rest of the film isn’t anything you haven’t seen before.  If you want to read a great review, Kirk Honeycutt of THR pretty much nails it.  But while I might not be blown away by the film, as a longtime fan of Jeff Bridges, I would love to see him win the big awards.

To help promote the film, we’ve been provided with five clip from Crazy Heart and you can check them out after the jump.  Also, look for interviews with Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Robert Duvall later this week: