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EXCLUSIVE: Universal Pictures has just acquired the Dean Unkefer book 90 Church: The True Story Of The Narcotics Squad From Hell, to be published by Random House in the US and Virgin Books in Europe in May 2013. This is a significant deal and it will reteam Snow White And The Huntsman director Rupert Sanders with producers Joe Roth and Palak Patel, who’ll produce with Deborah Giarratana. They will begin looking for a high-end writer immediately.
The book was sold by CAA in a preemptive deal with the studio, with execs Jeffrey Kirschenbaum and Maradith Frenkel overseeing it. Sanders has been developing the sequel to Snow White And The Huntsman, a movie which did just under $400 million worldwide. That project is now moving on a slower track, as the studio tries to figure out whether it wants to make a sequel, or instead a spinoff that focuses on Chris Hemsworth’s Huntsman character. David Koepp, who I’d reported back in April was hired to script a straight sequel, isn’t going forward at the moment and no script will be written until Universal figures out the next move. Studio likes the spinoff idea greatly. Because the Huntsman package sold in a five studio bidding battle, Sanders has no option tying him to either film, but he is squarely in the mix.
The upcoming novel 90 Church refers to the address of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics when it was formed in New York City to combat organized crime and drug traffic in the mid-1960s through early ’70s. While the FBI refused even to acknowledge organized crime, 30 agents stood alone against a well-organized Mafia and vicious drug cartels. To survive against impossible odds, the agents used incredibly brutal and cunning tactics to make cases and bring the war to a stalemate. Using an ever-expanding network of criminal informants held together by secret immunity deals, the sinister reputation of 90 Church grew along with the rising body count. The book is fictionalized but based on true events, written by one of the agents who worked in the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. That bureau later merged with another and became the DEA.
Roth Films is now in post production on Oz The Great And Powerful for Disney, and in production on Maleficent. CAA reps Sanders.
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I guess Lorenzo Di Bonaventura could never get this one going.
Oh I think it’s pretty obvious why Uni is “cool” on a Snow White direct sequel right now…”spin-off with Hemsworth” saves them the trouble or negotiating everything else behind the scenes…
We all know why is slowing down and I can bet the spin off will be their choice, and without Sanders of course.
Rupert Sanders? Sorry, boycott.
Ditto me that batman. Sanders is a POS. Stewart and Hemsworth however, I’ll line up for.
yo ni loca veo esa pelicula del cerdo como universal se arriesga por el vamos hacer campaña para que las fans de kris no vaya ningna
I totally agree with dropping the SWATH sequel. No one would go and see a movie with that homewrecker Kristen Stewart. What I don’t get is why this studio is still associating themselves with Rupert Sanders. His career is dead in Hollywood just like hers. They both will forever be known as cheaters and nothing more.
Wow… Are you his wife?
You’re so right…since cheating totally ruined Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s careers!
Really? People still watch Brangelina
Oh look, a cat lady from Robsessed.lunatic.com has shown up. ^ Guess what hon? Rob called. No, Rob called SECURITY, you crazy batshite. How old are you 12? Her carer is as hot as it ever was. They’re selling out of that new perfume she’s the face of right now! lol As to the rest of your hysterical gibberish – please. Both of those two Twi kids trend whenever they blink or pass wind, and it was Stewart who put butts in seats for Snow White and everyone knows it, not Sanders, and not even Hemsworth. Doubtful that Hemsworth would be down for this supposed version of Snow White, mainly, he’s not that hard up that he’d kick Stewart aside and take over. He’s got a great career going, why would he alienate her huge fanbase? Also Doubtful that Stewart goes anywhere near Sanders in this lifetime. Since it’s been widely reported that there was no “sequel language,” in Sanders contract, my guess is he’s as good as OUT. He better be glad that’s all he’s out of.
Why has no one done NY’s Finest? That Lt. Charles Becker script is one of the better cop dramas sitting on the blacklist.
thr, is saying universal dropped kristen. sanders is a shitty director, so it’s not like the man has talent.
And we know how reliable THR isn’t. I’ll believe it when I see it here.
IMO, the *only* reason that SWATH opened so well is Stewart. Love her or hate her as an actress, overreact to her personal life or not, she opened that movie. Universal would simply be idiotic to drop her.
Meanwhile, most criticism of the movie beyond the typical love her/hate her polarization about Stewart was in regards to Sanders’ plodding direction, especially in the middle third. Having seen the movie myself, I thought that the pacing was leaden throughout due directly to Sanders, who IMO made the community college theater mistake of thinking that slow pace equals realistic characterization rather than what it really is: under-rehearsed pretentiousness.
And, honestly, Charlize Theron’s performance as Ravenna, the evil queen, was bizarre and out-of-place for even a version of the movie that had swift pacing. It’s like she really wanted to be in Mirror, Mirror. “But she’s eeeeeeeevil, crazy eeeeeeeeevil, man!” is no excuse, especially when they present a pseudo-feminist-revisionist reason for her homicidal behavior to begin with. I mean, when you’re an director and you intend to have the rest of the cast act in a semi-realistic style (even though the movie is a fantasy), then the villain has got to be acting in the same style.
It was Sanders’ responsibility to reel Theron in, regardless of the fact that she is a past Oscar winner. He couldn’t do that, he couldn’t pace it, he seduced a lead actress who’s twenty years his junior — a lead actress who’s the *sole* reason the incompetently directed movie did so well at the box office worldwide, mind you — so he’s the one who should be fired from the franchise, IMO.
PS: I don’t think a Huntsman spin-off would work, either. In the revisionist intent of the script, the Huntsman is the one who wakes Snow with a kiss and therefore, he is the one who is the *real* Prince Charming. A prequel won’t work, a spin-off won’t work. Especially not when Hemsworth is playing little more than a depowered, tragic-hero version of Thor. (That’s not a knock on Hemsworth — unlike Theron, he was playing the character he was cast as.)
+ lots, Rob J. Every nail hammered home there. I think I’m maybe the only person who saw KS in ‘The Runaways’ and she was excellent. As you say, she was the only reason to watch ‘SWATH’ and the vilification she has received is downright misogynistic.
I agree with you about Theron. Theron is as good an actress as they come these days, but Sanders clearly didn’t spend sufficient time with her. Safe to say his focus was elsewhere? This was his greatest SWATH sin, as the Evil Queen character might have truly epic. Second sin was casting Stewart. She made herself available and he went for it as most directors would have. That’s fine, no one of importance will fault him for that. Casting her as the lead was a mistake but salvageable. If he had controlled her self destructive urges and met her at a more appropriate location, no one would have an issue with him. He’s learned his lesson, I’m sure.
Rupig Sanders? Um, no thanks.
A Rupert Sanders film. Jajajaja!!!!!
Damn straight we are doing a spinoff The Huntsman Goes To Mars. I want it in theaters next year for Memorial Day 2013 so let’s get going. We made Abbott & Costello Go To Mars so I know we can send The Huntsman To Mars.
Machete has the next Mars movie. I can see a Machete vs. The Huntsman movie next though.
agreed, no SWATH and NO rupert – he is gross and not that talented. SWATH did well because of Charlize’s acting, Chris’s popularity and Kristens uber fan base. Movie was not that good. Let’s call a spade a spade. He can go back to commercials
but SWATH did NOT well)))
You really think people saw Snow White because Chris Hemsworth was in it? Many fans saw the movie for Kristen and Charlize. Especially women and Twilight fans. Now she lost most of those fans, I can see why Universal dropped her and everyone else. Still, I don’t think many women will see anything with Rupert Sanders in it. It’s too bad a young star like Kristen Stewart is taking the brunt of cheating scandal while Rupert gets off without much fanfare.
Agreed. Wouldn’t it be nice if the Twilight fanbase had come together and said, you know what, a mistake’s a mistake, everyone’s made them, and it’s not any of our business anyway, it’s not like she should’ve apologized to us, so let’s give her some privacy?
It would’ve been nice if there had been…any…of that.
I think Huntsman only is mistake. Girls get so few movies. Why not add Snow? If they want the BO#’s
They should fire the director, if they are dropping her, he should get equal treatment…and at least people wont notice his abscense but they should not drop the girl, since shes the name of the movie…this news/decision doesnt make any sense…and even if studio was planning a sequel without the SNOWHITE, its not wise at all to do it now. I smell sexism and boycot from the twilight fans…both the one team robert and the ones team kristen and the ones team robsten. Not wise, universal…lol!
UH OH Universal studios will have the fury of twilight fans, robert fans, kristen fans, robsten fans, united or separated teams doing boycott to snowhite without snowhite / snowhite w/o snowhite but still with the unloved director in 3, 2, 1…
Or, you know, decent people who don’t like that a POS gets to continue with his multi-millionaire dollar career when there are hundreds of talented people who could take his place…
Stewart got Huntsman MADE, not Sanders. No one knew who he was before this. For them to even consider dropping her and keeping him is hugely hypocritical and sexsist. There are dozens of directors in Hollywood that could have directed that (and done a better job).
Agreed. No one gave a flying s**t about this guy until this cheating thing came up.
No fan of Stewart or her bad acting, but this is kind of crappy. They drop her, but potentially keep Sanders? I guess they feel like her Twilight fanbase is gone, but since when were they ever there? They only showed up for the Twilight films…
Universal will be sued for gender discrimination. Gloria Allred this is right up your alley. They are staying in business with Rupert but giving Kristen the bum’s rush. Something is very wrong with that equation.
The joke is that they never had sex and it was a fake “affair” done purely for publicity to keep the Twihards on the edge of their seats. Rob and Kristen will get back together two weeks before Twilight opens in late November.
They will go to the premier together and the tabloids will announce they are “stronger than ever and completely in love again” and the publicity stunt will have done its trick. That’s what this fake affair was designed to do and it’s working perfectly.
Rupert Sanders is a better investment than Kristen Stewart.
To the insane and PR deaf maybe.
I’m glad you’re not handling my portfolio.
Spoken like someone who hasn’t seen SWATH. IMO, Stewart and Hemsworth’s performances work *despite* Sanders’s incompetence. It’s a literally unwatchable movie when one or the other or both of those actors isn’t onscreen.
If Universal were smart, they’d keep Stewart, ditch Sanders and have Koepp both write and direct the actual sequel.
the first movie was horrible. if i was chris hemsworth i’d walk away. he has better things on his plate.
I’m sorry but is anyone standing up for this poor girl ! She was what 20 and her 42 year old director showered her with attention and praise. Who knows what he told her regarding the status of his marriage! It’s bullshit for the studios to start pulling movies from her ,men have been committing adultery in this town for years and been praised /rewarded for it.
The girl is 22 for gods sake. Everyone I knew at that age was sleeping with girlfriends boyfriends best friends everything. Everyone’s feelings were hurt and thank god my shenanigans werent on every mag cover
Everyone step out of the goddamn tmz and look at the facts. Rupert Sanders made a gorgeous film. He elevated the material with his eye and craft the way Ridley Scott does. He deserves credit for that and it is a definite factor to the film’s success. The other factors were Theron’s performance and Stewart’s fan base. Hemsworth was great in the part, but it could’ve been played by many other young male up and comers. The script was the weakest part of that film but Theron took lines that could’ve crippled the film with a lesser actor and made them sound so good, they were nearly quotable. Sanders shot the hell out of it and crafted an environment that people loved and connected with. A true Fantasy world. He should definitely direct the spin off. Stewart did her best but her performance wasn’t effective, it was serviceable. The character won’t be missed. If a well written script can be made with Sanders, Theron, Hemsworth and a new talented female lead (not snow white… sleeping beauty maybe?) then people will show up.
Thank you! This board is a mess with so many twilight fans! Calm down girls, Universal will give Kstew a new gig soon, I’m sure. Right now, a spin-off with CH is the smartest decision.
There are at least 10 known directors out there who could have done a better job than Sanders. He’s an excellent commercial director, it’s true, but he was completely out of his depth on this project and it showed. Ultimately, audiences won’t care if he directs the sequel because they barely know who he is.
Thank you for your rational commennt. My head was spinning reading all the twilight fans comments ;D
Cheater that he is, he is a good director. Am sure K Stew would not be sidelined as well. Maybe she won’t be in the SWATH’s sequel, but she’ll be cast in something else. She is a good actress. No one’s career is dead here people.
I guess you think a cheater should get rewarded for his great work that by the way Kristen got pushed thru for him?? I only hope you have a husband with the same cat morals as your great director Sue. Maybe then you will see the great injustice going on here. EQUAL PUNISHMENT FOR BOTH NOT JUST ONE!!! And it is not being a Twilight fan to see the injustice of the situation. So if your head is spinning let me use smaller words for you.. She is paying, he needs to pay. Is that helping your head?
Sanity. God bless. SWATH isn’t a personal fav (poor script, Stewart can’t act and was miscast) but otherwise Sanders came out of the gate running and did a bang up job. Few directors are able to guide a 170 mill ship safely into harbor but that “cheating scum” did it. I’m laughing at those who think he will be punished for his infidelity. Directors and producers screw their (very willing) actresses all the time. In Hollywood’s eyes, the only mistake he made was indiscretion. They know they have a talented, capable director on their hands. Not a chance will they blacklist him.
Looking forward to his Battle of Algiers remake.
Directors survive scandal much better than actors. (Polanski, Allen, etc)
Talented directors, not a nobody who is now known because he cheated on his wife with a popular actress.
You didn’t just seriously compare Rupert Sanders to Woody Allen and Roman Polanski did you?
Woody Allen and Roman Polanski are DIRECTORS, Ruper Sanders is a “director.”
I love you twi fans YOU GIVE ME LIFE!!! hahahahaha!!!!