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Are Lawrence Kasdan, Simon Kinberg Being Courted To Script ‘Star Wars’ Pics 2 and 3?

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday November 20, 2012 @ 3:06pm PSTTags: Big Deals Film, Disney, George Lucas, Lawrence Kasdan, Simon Kinberg, Star Wars
Mike Fleming

Simon Kinberg Star Wars ScriptLawrence Kasdan Star Wars WriterEXCLUSIVE: Here’s some tantalizing dish to chew on before the Thanksgiving turkey and trimmings. After hiring Michael Arndt to script the first installment of the relaunch of George Lucas’ Star Wars franchise, I’ve heard Disney has approached Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg and I believe it is to get the ball rolling on the subsequent installments mapped out by Lucas. Both of the scribes in question have franchise experience.

Kasdan scripted two of the original Star Wars films in the 1980 The Empire Strikes Back and the 1983 follow-up Return of the Jedi. He also scripted Raiders Of The Lost Ark for Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Kinberg’s franchise work: X-Men: The Last Stand, Sherlock Holmes and the upcoming X-Men: Days Of Future Past which Bryan Singer will direct. READ MORE »

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Lawrence Kasdan’s Directing Return: “Hollywood Has Turned Their Back On This Kind Of Movie”

By PETE HAMMOND | Friday April 20, 2012 @ 12:24pm PDTTags: Darling Companion, Diane Keaton, Kevin Kline, Lawrence Kasdan
Pete Hammond

Lawrence Kasdan has done something he never dreamed of: He’s gone indie and he doesn’t think he’s going back. The four-time Oscar-nominated screenwriter of such blockbusters as The Empire Strikes Back, Return Of The Jedi, The Bodyguard and Raiders Of The Lost Ark and writer-director of such acclaimed films as Body Heat, The Big Chill, The Accidental Tourist, Silverado and Grand Canyon among others is back with Darling Companion. It’s his first new film in nine years (since 2003′s ill-fated Dreamcatcher) and the first time in a 30-plus-year career that he has worked without a net. A studio-bred filmmaker from the beginning, Kasdan says no studio would go near his latest project, co-written with wife of 40 years Meg Kasdan, and he totally gets it. That’s why at age 62 he decided he had to go it alone because Companion, aimed at older audiences the same age as its director, has got to be a true gem (considering the multi-Oscared cast) and rich, if rare, entertainment for that largely forgotten sector of the audience the industry routinely dismisses — and who can’t find anything to see starring people their own age. This kind of smart (by design), sophisticated adult comedy rarely comes along these days unless it’s got Woody Allen’s name on it, and even those are mostly populated with younger actors.

Related: Specialty B.O.: ‘Darling Companion’, ‘Downtown Express’, ‘Marley’, ‘Moth Diaries’
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Lawrence Kasdan, Harlan Coben Team On New Thriller Novel ‘Stay Close’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Sunday January 22, 2012 @ 10:07am PSTTags: Jonathan Kasdan, Lawrence Kasdan
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Lawrence Kasdan and bestselling author Harlan Coben are teaming on a feature adaptation of Stay Close, Coben’s latest thriller novel which Dutton will publish March 20. Kasdan, who came to Sundance to watch yesterday’s premiere of son Jonathan Kasdan’s … Read More »

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Lawrence Kasdan’s ‘Darling Companion’ To Open Santa Barbara Film Festival

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Sunday December 18, 2011 @ 7:40pm PSTTags: Darling Companion, Lawrence Kasdan, Santa Barbara International Film Festival

Santa Barbara, CA – The 27th Santa Barbara International Film Festival (January 26-February 5), presented by lynda.com, will open the 2012 Festival with the World Premiere of the Sony Classic Pictures film Darling Companion, directed by Lawrence Kasdan and starring Diane Keaton, Kevin Kline, Dianne Wiest, Richard Jenkins, Sam Shepard, Mark Duplass, Elisabeth Moss, and Ayelet Zurer. Opening night will take place at the Arlington Theatre on Thursday, January 26, 2012 and is sponsored by Studio 7.

“We are incredibly privileged to have the world premiere of a Lawrence Kasdan film. The highly anticipated Darling Companion is a fantastic film to kick off the festival,” remarked SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling.

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Ayelet Zurer Replacing Julia Ormond As Superman’s Krypton Mom

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Sunday September 25, 2011 @ 3:54pm PDTTags: Amy Adams, Charles Roven, Chris Nolan, Diane Keaton, Diane Lane, Dianne Wiest, Emma Thomas, Henry Cavill, Julia Ormond, Kevin Costner, Lara Lor-Van, Lawrence Kasdan, Man of Steel, Michael Shannon, Russell Crowe, Superman, Zack Snyder
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Superman is getting a new mom. Ayelet Zurer, the Israeli actress who starred in Angels & Demons and who played the wife of Avner (Eric Bana) in Munich, has been set to play the role of Lara Lor-Van, Superman’s … Read More »

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Alex Proyas Setting Benjamin Walker To Play Archangel Michael In ‘Paradise Lost’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday August 3, 2011 @ 7:06pm PDTTags: Alex Proyas, Benjamin Walker, Bradley Cooper, David O. Russell, Jennifer Lawrence, Jon Jashni, Lawrence Kasdan, Legendary Pictures, Paradise Lost, Stuart Hazeldine, Thomas Tull
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Legendary Pictures is negotiating with Benjamin Walker to play the archangel Michael in Paradise Lost, the action epic battle between good and evil that is inspired by the John Milton poem. Walker, who just wrapped the title role in Abraham … Read More »

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Sony Pictures Classics Acquires Domestic Rights On ‘Darling Companion’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday July 27, 2011 @ 10:34am PDTTags: Darling Companion, Film Acquisition, Lawrence Kasdan, Sony Pictures Classics
Mike Fleming

New York, NY (July 27, 2011) – Sony Pictures Classics has preemptively acquired all domestic rights to Lawrence Kasdan’s DARLING COMPANION from production company Werc Werk Works, it was announced today by Sony Pictures Classics and Werc Werk Works CEO Elizabeth Redleaf.

DARLING COMPANION is written by Meg Kasdan and Lawrence Kasdan and directed by Lawrence Kasdan. It stars Kevin Kline, Diane Keaton, Dianne Wiest, Richard Jenkins, Elisabeth Moss, Mark Duplass, Ayelet Zurer and Sam Shepherd. The film is produced by Anthony Bregman for Likely Story, Lawrence Kasdan for Kasdan Pictures and Elizabeth Redleaf for Werc Werk Works. Christine Walker, Meg Kasdan and John Kelly served as executive producers.

In DARLING COMPANION, Beth (Keaton) saves a bedraggled lost dog from the side of the freeway on a wintry day in Denver. Struggling with her distracted, self-involved husband Joseph (Kline) and an empty nest at home, Beth forms a special bond with the rescued animal. When Joseph loses the dog after a wedding at their vacation home in the Rockies, the distraught Beth enlists the help of the few remaining guests and a mysterious young woman (Zurer) in a frantic search. Each member of the search party is affected by the adventure, which takes them in unexpected directions – comic, harrowing, and sometimes deeply emotional.

Sony Pictures Classics plans a 2012 release for DARLING COMPANION.

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