The original comedy pilot, pitched as Encyclopedia Brown meets House, depicts a genius thirteen year-old college graduate who, looking to prove herself, starts a detective agency with her best friend.
Josh Lyons
The article “She Would Have Been the Perfect Mom For Someone That Was Actually Sick,” by Michelle Dean details the strange 2015 case about Dee Dee Blanchard and her supposedly sick daughter Gypsy Rose.
The story, which is being pitched as The Revenant with a strong female lead and an elevated supernatural horror component, centers on a pregnant witch in the Old West who hunts down the possessed man who killed her husband.
Dancing With the Tiger, the debut novel from author Lili Wright, has been acquired by The Mark Gordon Company with plans for a feature film adaptation. MGC will co-finance with eOne.
As the first round of finalists in the 2016 Launch Pad Manuscript Competition were announced just 24 hours ago, two of the competition partners – Inkshares and Brooklyn Weaver – have set up the book partial with the producers behind the upcoming Jack Ryan and The Dark Tower series.
Actor and singer Eiza Gonzalez has joined the cast of Robert Rodriguez’s adaptation of the manga series Alita: Battle Angel. James Cameron, who was previously attached to direct, wrote the script based on Yukito Kishiro’s original material.
CBS has given a put pilot commitment to A Burglar’s Guide to the City, a one-hour drama from Scorpion executive producers Alex Kurtzman, Justin Lin, and Heather Kadin and co-executive producer Paul Grellong. Lin is also attached to direct the pilot.
FX has renewed the hit anthology series American Horror Story for a seventh season. The show, which comes from co-creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, recently premiered its sixth season.
Launch Pad alum Caitlin McCarthy has signed with Barry Krost of Barry Krost Management. McCarthy recently appeared as a finalist in the 2016 Launch Pad Pilots Competition with her original drama pilot Free Skate.
Ryan Kavanaugh has put Relativity Media up for sale. The news comes after the company’s first post-bankruptcy wide release, the long-shelved Zack Galifianakis-Kristen Wiig comedy Masterminds, bombed at the box office over the weekend, taking in just $6.6 million from over 2,000 screens. Relativity has hired EMP and Zolfo Cooper to handle the sale.
Cameron Cuffe has been cast as the male lead in the Syfy Superman prequel series Krypton. Cuffe will play Superman’s grandfather, Seg-El, in the series based on the DC Comics characters created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
Black Sails actor Toby Stephens has boarded the Netflix reboot of Lost in Space based on the 1965 cult classic TV series from Irwin Allen. Stephens joins Taylor Russell and Maxwell Jenkins in the series written and produced by Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama.
Amazon has ordered Toy Wars to pilot, a limited drama series from Frozen star Josh Gad and Josh Schwartz based on G Wayne Miller’s 1998 non-fiction Toy Wars: The Epic Struggle Between G.I. Joe, Barbie, and the Companies that Make Them.
Domestic rights and some foreign territories to the Johnny Depp thriller LAbyrinth have been picked up by Open Road Films. The film comes from a 2015 Black List script by Christian Contreras, who adapted Randall Sullivan’s book. The Infiltrator helmer Brad Furman is set to direct.
Fifty Shades of Grey star Jamie Dornan is in final talks to join Lionsgate’s Robin Hood: Origins. Dornan would join Taron Egerton, who will star as Robin Hood, Jamie Foxx as Little John, and Eve Hewson as Maid Marian. Otto Bathurst (Peaky Blinders) is directing from a spec script by Joby Harold.
Universal Pictures has selected five writers for its annual Emerging Writers Fellowship, aimed at bolstering diverse talent within the studio’s ranks.
2016 Launch Pad alum Kristen Bartlett has been hired to write for Saturday Night Live ahead of the iconic variety show’s 42nd season premiere and has signed with manager Brandon Stein of Brillstein Entertainment Partners. Bartlett was a finalist in this year’s LPPC with her original comedy pilot GILFs.
The Light Between Oceans star Michael Fassbender is set to produce The Pilgrimage, a drama from newcomer Irish screenwriter Chris Boyle McQuarry. Fassbender is producing through his DMC Films banner with Conor McCaughan and Daniel Emmerson.
Newcomer Cailee Spaeny will join John Boyega as the female lead in Pacific Rim: Maelstrom the sequel to Guillermo Del Toro’s 2013 sci-fi monsters vs. robots pic. Steven S. DeKnight is directing the film for Legendary Entertainment and Universal Pictures.
Hell or High Water scribe Taylor Sheridan has been tapped by Sony Pictures and Escape Artists to write Disorder, a remake of a 2015 French thriller written by Alice Winocour and Jean Stephane Bron and directed by Winocour.
As the Toronto market starts to heat up in the festival’s final days, Fox Searchlight in closing a deal to buy the North American distribution rights to A United Kingdom, director Amma Asante’s romantic drama starring David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike.
Showtime and IFC have partnered to acquire the rights to The Bleeder, a boxing drama starring Liev Schreiber. Philippe Falardeau directed from a script which comes from Michael Cristofer, Jerry Stahl, and Jeff Feuerzeig.
In one of the few deals to come out of what has been a cool market in Toronto so far, EuropaCorp has acquired the U.S. distribution rights to Their Finest, a World War II dramedy starring Sam Claflin, Bill Nighy, Richard E. Grant, and Gemma Arterton.
Turner Broadcasting has acquired the rights to the Star Wars franchise as part of a multi-year licensing agreement with Disney and 20th Century Fox, a deal which includes 11 films in all. TNT has already set a Star Wars marathon to celebrate the acquisition.
20th Century Fox has nabbed the life rights to Stan Lee, the co-creator of several iconic Marvel Comics characters, with plans to develop an action adventure film set in the 1970s. Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey of Temple Hill Entertainment are attached to produce.
NBC’s iconic sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live has added three new featured players to its ensemble ahead of the 42nd season premiere: Alex Moffat, Melissa Villaseñor, and Mikey Day.
PalmStar Media has acquired the rights to the classic novel The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho from The Weinstein Company for an eye-popping $6.5 million. Laurence Fishburne, who has been attached to direct the project for some time, will remain attached.
Bleecker Street and Participant Media have jointly acquired North American rights to Breathe, a drama directed by Andy Serkis and starring Andrew Garfield as Robin Cavendish, who became one of the longest-living polio survivors in Great Britain after being struck with the disease at the age of 28.
Orion and BH Tilt have acquired The Belko Experiment, a high-concept thriller written by Guardians of the Galaxy’s James Gunn and directed by Wolf Creek helmer Greg McLean.
Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan is re-teaming with one of the show’s most lauded directors, Michelle MacLaren, for a limited series Raven based on the nonfiction book Raven: The Untold Story of Jim Jones and His People by Tim Reiterman.
