You are viewing the archive: “Kenneth Oppel”

EXCLUSIVE! Matt Reeves Is Warner Bros’ Pick For ‘Twilight Zone’ Movie

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Saturday October 15, 2011 @ 10:52am PDTTags: Jacob Aaron Estes, Jennifer Davisson Killoran, Kenneth Oppel, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Reeves, Rod Serling, The Twilight Zone
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Let Me In and Cloverfield director Matt Reeves has been chosen by Warner Bros to direct The Twilight Zone, the Jason Rothenberg-scripted thriller based on the classic Rod Serling TV series. Negotiations will get underway early next week, but this is an assignment that was coveted by a number of top directors.
The Twilight Zone is being produced by Appian Way partners Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson Killoran, and Michael Ireland. Warner Bros’ Matt Cherniss is the exec.  Though the last Twilight Zone film  was an anthology with different directors, this one is a big science fiction action movie with a single freestanding story that is linked to the original series mainly in that it shares that familiarly eerie feel. The hope is to sign to sign Reeves quickly, continue to work on the script and get the picture into production by next summer.

Reeves is aligned with several major projects that will keep him busy for some time. He recently signed on to develop to direct This Dark Endeavor, a revisionist take on the Frankenstein tale based on Kenneth Oppel’s novel, with Jacob Aaron Estes writing the script for Summit Entertainment. Reeves is also attached to direct the Justin Cronin vampire novel The Passage for Fox 2000, and he’s got a deal at Universal to write and direct a film based on the Ray Nelson short story 8 O’Clock in the Morning, about a man who awakens with the realization that aliens are all over the place and control society. Reeves is repped by CAA and 3 Arts.

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Matt Reeves And Jacob Estes Take On Summit’s Frankenstein Film

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday May 24, 2011 @ 1:43pm PDTTags: Jacob Aaron Estes, Kenneth Oppel, Mary Shelley, Matt Reeves, Summit Entertainment, This Dark Endeavor
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Let Me In director Matt Reeves has been signed to direct This Dark Endeavor, with Mean Creek writer/helmer Jacob Aaron Estes writing the script for Summit Entertainment. Deadline told you yesterday about a batch of films based on the Mary Shelley Frankenstein novel. Summit just took a step forward in this contest. The film is based on the Kenneth Oppel novel This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein. It will be published this summer by Simon & Schuster, the first of a series.

In the Oppel novel, Frankenstein’s twin Konrad is gravely ill. His brother seeks out a mysterious old alchemist to help him produce the Elixir of Life, a serum that will bestow the gift of perpetual health. You can’t order this drink at a pub, and Frankenstein sets out on a dangerous adventure to find the elusive contents. He’s accompanied by his best friend Elizabeth, who is sweet on Konrad. Things get complicated among the three of them. Read More »

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Latest ‘Franken’ Film Will Be Adaptation

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday May 23, 2011 @ 2:47pm PDTTags: Craig Fernandez, Guillermo Del Toro, Karen Rosenfelt, Kenneth Oppel, Mary Shelley, Matt Tolmach, Nathan Kahane, Rob Tapert, Ryan Murphy, Sam Raimi, Scott Stuber, Slash, Steve Niles
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: While the outbreak of zombie and vampire films has been well chronicled, Hollywood has also become flush with Frankenstein films. The latest is an adaptation of the Peter Ackroyd novel The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein, which has just gotten Pulitzer-winning Proof playwright David Auburn signed to write the script.  The project is set with RT Features, and Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert’s Ghost House Pictures. The story covers the youthful days of Frankenstein, who begins experimenting with corpses, influenced by the outspoken English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, whose Mary wrote the book. She’s a character in the film as well. RT Features’ Rodrigo Teixeira will produce with Tapert and Ilene Staple, while Fernando Loureiro, Jeff Vespa and Ghost House’s Nathan Kahane and Lawrence Grey will be exec producers.

That’s just one of several Frankenflicks. Universal is developing a new version of the 1931 studio classic movie with Guillermo del Toro and Scott Stuber; Summit Entertainment is developing This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein, an adaptation of the Kenneth Oppel novel that is being produced by Twilight Saga’s Karen Rosenfelt; and Columbia Pictures and producer Matt Tomach recently acquired Frankenstein, a contemporary re-telling of the famous tale based on a pitch by Craig Fernandez. If that’s not enough, former Guns n Roses guitar hero Slash, whose Slasher Films is teamed with Scout Productions on a Jay Russell-attached Wake the Dead, a Frankenstein tale based on the graphic novel by Steve Niles (30 Days of Night). And let’s not forget Fox 2000’s remake of the 1975 camp classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show, last heard from around Halloween, when the studio courted Glee’s Ryan Murphy, right after he wrapped an episode devoted to the original movie. Read More »

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Summit’s Post-’Twilight’ Chapter To Be Underwritten By Book Adaptations

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Friday March 18, 2011 @ 8:13am PDTTags: Alex Proyas, Daniel H. Wilson, Deborah Kaplan, Doug Wick, Emma Watson, Erik Feig, Erin Morgenstern, Harry Elfont, Isaac Marion, Jesse Wigutow, John Gray, Kenneth Oppel, Logan Lerman, Lucy Fisher, Nicholas Hoult, Robert Ludlum, Stephen Chbosky, Stephenie Meyer, Summit Entertainment, Twilight Saga, Veronica Roth, Warren Ellis
Mike Fleming

The start of Summit Entertainment’s trajectory began when the mini-major convinced Stephenie Meyer to sell her Twilight Saga book series after she’d been left so frustrated by how Paramount Pictures let it languish. Was it a billion dollar lucky break? … Read More »

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Summit Books Frankenstein Origin Tale ‘This Dark Endeavor’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday February 1, 2011 @ 10:10am PSTTags: Book-to-Movie, Guillermo Del Toro, Karen Rosenfelt, Kenneth Oppel, Mary Shelley, Movie Deals, Movies, Summit Entertainment, This Dark Endeavor
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Summit Entertainment has acquired screen rights to This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein, a novel by Kenneth Oppel. Summit’s Twilight Saga producer Karen Rosenfelt is aboard to produce. The novel will be published by Simon & Schuster in the summer. The action … Read More »

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