Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Glenn Ficarra and John Requa have made a Warner Bros deal to direct their script Focus, which will be produced by Denise DiNovi. She was a producer on the last comedy they made for the studio, Crazy, Stupid, Love. I’m told they hope to draft that comedy’s leads, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, to play the lead roles, though studio insiders said it hasn’t gotten that far yet. Focus tells the story of a veteran con man who gets involved with a newcomer to the grifter business. They get involved romantically but that becomes perilous in a business where they lie and cheat for a living. The complications of the encounter haunt them when they meet up again in the future. Ficarra and Requa, who are repped by WME, wrote Bad Santa and wrote and directed I Love You, Phillip Morris.