The Tracking Board’s Daily Debrief (08.11.16)

David Bruckner Set To Write And Direct
The Ritual For Producer Andy Serkis (EXCLUSIVE)

David Bruckner is set to write and direct The Ritual, an adaptation of the award-winning horror novel by Adam Nevill for Andy Serkis’s The Imaginarium. Rafe Spall, Robert James-Collier, and Sam Troughton are attached to star.

Stuart Beattie Brought On To Adapt Fall Of Gods For 20th Century Fox (EXCLUSIVE)

I, Frankenstein writer-director Stuart Beattie has been brought on to adapt the illustrated novel Fall of Gods for 20th Century Fox. The Maze Runner helmer Wes Ball is set to direct the fantasy epic, which has a Braveheart-esque angle on classic Norse gods and mythology.

In The World Of Movies, Animation Deserves Better

Animation has been given a disservice in several ways throughout the years — thinking it’s a genre largely for children, and therefore just to serve as entertainment; not allowing other studios and artists to break into the general mainstream; and, for the most part, not being recognized as it should be.

More News From Around The Web

• Courtney B. Vance and Leslie Uggams are among eight actors who have joined the cast of HBO Films’ The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, starring Oprah Winfrey. (Deadline)

• Showtime announced that Homeland will return for its sixth season on January 15, 2017. The cable network also announced that it has renewed Ray Donovan for a fifth season and that Billions is slated to return next year. (Entertainment Weekly)

• Comics writer Grant Morrison and Crank co-director Brian Taylor have been chosen to turn dystopian novel Brave New World into a SyFy TV series. (The Verge)

• CW Network president Mark Pedowitz talked about the return Nina Dobrev to The Vampire Diaries at the Television Critics Association press tour saying that there were “discussions going on” with the actress and they’d “love to have her back.” (Hypable)

• The cast for Robert Kirkman’s Outcast is growing for the second season. The Cinemax drama is adding Madelyn Deutch, M.C. Gainey, and Hoon Lee to the fold. (Bleeding Cool)

• The CW will add  the DC animated show Freedom Fighters: The Ray to their CW Seed digital platform. The Ray will be the first gay superhero to lead a show and the plan is to eventually incorporate a live-action version of the character into one of the DC shows. (/Film)

• Nickelodeon has announced that it’s bringing back classic Nicktoon Rocko’s Modern Life for a new TV movie with original series creator Joe Murray on board as an executive producer and co-director. (The A.V. Club)

• TriStar has signed Michelle MacLaren to helm the feature film adaptation of Kristin Hannah’s bestselling novel The Nightingale. (Variety)

• Frank Shaw is bringing her short film SMILF to Showtime. The cable network has ordered a pilot based on the comedic short written, produced, and directed by Shaw. (The Hollywood Reporter)

• CBS Films has hired Jennifer Chambers Lynch to direct Hellfest a horror-thriller set during Halloween at a theme park where a costumed killer begins slaying unsuspecting patrons. The pic will be produced by Gale Anne Hurd’s Valhalla Pictures. (Indiewire)

• Aurora Perrineau has been tapped to star in the coming-of-age drama Virginia, Minnesota from writer-director Daniel Stine. (Variety)