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Ron Howard, David Koepp Team Up For ‘Spy Vs. Spy’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday June 22, 2011 @ 2:54pm PDTTags: Akiva Goldsman, Captain Richard Phillips, David Koepp, Niki Lauda, Paul Greengrass, Peter Morgan, Ron Howard, Stephen King, Tom Hanks
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Remember Spy vs. Spy, the running comic strip of one-ups-manship between rival spooks from Mad Magazine? A live-action bigscreen version is moving forward at Warner Bros for Ron Howard to direct. David Koepp will produce with Howard and his Imagine Entertainment partner Brian Grazer. Right now, Koepp will oversee a script that will be written by John Kamps. Kamps just teamed with Koepp to write Premium Rush, the Sony Pictures movie directed by Koepp, who also just rewrote the Jack Ryan film for Paramount Pictures. The film will be a physical and highly visual action comedy with two spies going mano a mano in ruthless fashion.

Spy Vs. Spy will be down the line for Howard, who always has a busy dance card. As Howard and Grazer and Akiva Goldsman prepare to turn in the rewrite of The Dark Tower over the next couple of weeks to see if Universal Pictures will fund the ambitious adaptation of the Stephen King novel series planned to span three films and two TV series runs, Howard has been eyeing projects he might be able to squeeze in before. He met on the film that’ll have Tom Hanks playing Captain Richard Phillips, who gave himself up to be a hostage to Somali pirates, that Paul Greengrass has wound up directing. He’s been rumored for a Frankenstein project at 20th Century Fox that Max Landis is writing for producer John Davis. And he is getting serious about Rush, the Peter Morgan-scripted film about Formula one racer Niki Lauda. The latter project seems to have the strongest chance of happening, but only if it can start in the fall. In an interview I did with Howard and Grazer to commemorate Imagine’s 25th anniversary, they told me in no uncertain terms they are determined to make The Dark Tower early next year, whether at Universal or elsewhere. I believe them.

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Paul Greengrass Offered Somali Pirate Pic By Sony Pictures, Talks Starting

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday June 8, 2011 @ 11:44am PDTTags: Captain Richard Phillips, Dana Brunetti, Kevin Spacey, Michael De Luca, Navy SEALs, Paul Greengrass, Scott Rudin, Somali Pirates, Tom Hanks
Mike Fleming

UPDATE: I’ve learned that Memphis won’t be an impediment to Paul Greengrass directing this Somali pirate movie, so I expect this to move quickly and that this will be the director’s next film.

EARLIER: Director Paul Greengrass and Sony … Read More »

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Tom Hanks Poised To Play Capt. Richard Phillips In Somali Pirate Saga

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday March 15, 2011 @ 12:17pm PDTTags: Captain Richard Phillips, Dana Brunetti, Kevin Spacey, Michael De Luca, Scott Rudin, Somali Pirates, Sony Pictures, Tom Hanks
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures Entertainment is attaching Tom Hanks to play Captain Richard Phillips, the leader of the cargo ship Maersk Alabama who gave himself up as a hostage to Somali pirates to keep his crew from having to leave the … Read More »

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