Latest on who’s doing what with whom

July 25
Somewhere, there is a crime happening.

Indeed. But “RoboCop” is coming out of retirement courtesy of director Darren Aronofsky and writer David Self. The writer-director of “The Fountain” and the writer of “Road to Perdition” have signed deals to develop a big-budget 21st century installment in the saga of the human-machine hybrid crime fighter.

MGM plans to release the film in 2010.

The original “RoboCop,” written by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner, was directed with camp adroitness by Paul Verhoeven in 1987 and released by Orion Pictures. It focused on a mortally wounded cop (Peter Weller) in a futuristic, crime-ridden Detroit who returns to fight corruption in the guise of a tough-talking cyborg. Sequels followed in 1990 and 1993, along with TV series and video games. RoboCop retains a sizable fan base online.

Mary Parent, chairman of MGM’s worldwide motion picture group, and MGM chairman-CEO Harry Sloan announced their ”RoboCop” revival in May at the Cannes Film Festival. They aim to rebuild the do-gooding manbot using the latest filmmaking technology and spending as much as $100 million on the budget. The tone and feel would be similar to the first movie.

Aronofsky recently wrapped “The Wrestler,” a drama starring Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood and Mickey Rourke.

Self has written screenplays for “Thirteen Days” and Universal’s upcoming “Wolf Man” remake.

In resuscitating the MGM brand, Parent and company have been delving into the studio’s library for remake material. Revamps of “Red Dawn,” “Fame,” “Poltergeist” and “Death Wish” are all in the works.

July 25
Could the eerie music of “The Twilight Zone” soon be playing again at the movies?

Warner Bros. and Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company, Appian Way, are seeking material for a feature take on one or more episodes from the classic TV series.

Appian Way is not known for sci-fi projects, but “Twilight Zone” is said to be DiCaprio’s favorite show.

The studio and production company are quietly putting out word that they’re looking for pitches and script ideas based on the show for feature development.

The companies don’t aim to make an episodic movie like the 1983 “Twilight Zone,” the only big-screen version of the series, but rather hope to build one continuing story line based on one or more episodes.

Warners owns rights to the Rod Serling-penned episodes, which account for the bulk of its 1959-64 run. The Serling shows include such famous episodes as “To Serve Man,” about giant aliens who land on Earth, and “Eye of the Beholder,” about an inverted society where the attractive are considered ugly. The original series contained about 155 episodes.

Thanks to syndication — the show now runs on Sci Fi Channel — and many pop-culture homages, “Twilight Zone” continues to have a devoted, if somewhat older-skewing, fan base nearly five decades after it left the primetime airwaves.

Twenty-five years ago Warners released a four-segment film based on the series. Each segment was helmed by a different director — Joe Dante, John Landis, George Miller and Steven Spielberg — with three of the segments direct remakes of classic episodes.

The movie drew modest boxoffice and was known mainly for the on-set accident that killed actor Vic Morrow and two child actors during production of the Landis-directed section.

There have been other attempts at “Zone” updates, among them CBS’ 1994 TV movie based on several Serling episodes. Summit is making a big-screen version of the Richard Matheson-penned story “Countdown,” which was turned into the ”Twilight Zone” episode “Death Ship” and centers on astronauts who land on a planet only to find their dead bodies already there.

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July 24
ABC is eyeing Patricia Heaton for the lead in “The Middle,” a quirky single-camera comedy.

Written by DeAnn Heline and Eileen Heisler, “Middle” tells the story of a middle-class Midwestern family seen through the eyes of the mother. During the 2006-07 development cycle, it was picked up as a pilot starring Ricki Lake but narrowly missed the cut for a series order.

Now ABC is said to have given the project a new cast-contingent pilot order, possibly tied to landing Heaton as the lead.

Picking up a pilot contingent on a specific actor is rare but not unprecedented. Five years ago, CBS picked up the pilot for “Two and a Half Men” contingent on the producers securing Charlie Sheen.

July 24
Tim Burton and Disney have found their new Alice — not in Wonderland or down the rabbit hole but Down Under.

Australian actress Mia Wasikowska, a regular on HBO’s “In Treatment,” is in final negotiations to walk through the looking glass in Burton’s take on Lewis Carroll’s classic fantasy novel “Alice in Wonderland.” The deal marks the end of a long search for the big-budget project’s title character.

The film, based on a script by Linda Woolverton (“The Lion King”), will be shot with live-action and performance-capture footage and presented in Disney Digital 3-D.

Wasikowska got her start on the Aussie series “All Saints.” She next will appear opposite Daniel Craig in Edward Zwick’s war drama “Defiance” and just completed filming the role of a young Amelia Earhart fan in Mira Nair’s biopic “Amelia,” starring Hilary Swank.

July 24
“Nip/Tuck” creator Ryan Murphy is getting into the “American Idol” spirit with “Glee,” an hourlong comedy that has been put on the fast track by Fox for a potential March launch.

The project, which is now casting, is set in the cutthroat world of high school glee clubs.

“Glee” centers on Will, a thirtysomething Spanish teacher at an Ohio high school who has the daunting task of taking over the school’s glee club — the worst in the country — which has become a haven for outcasts. With help from Will and others, the kids build their confidence and gradually transform into winners. Each episode will feature four musical numbers.

After the racy “Nip/Tuck” and his controversial transsexual-themed “Pretty/Handsome” pilot for FX, which ultimately wasn’t picked up, Murphy wanted to develop a wholesome comedy that the entire family can watch.

“It is a very optimistic, uplifting show for a very dark time,” he said of “Glee.”

Under his deal with 20th TV, Fox and FX, Murphy was exploring series ideas for Fox that tie to the network’s biggest hit, “American Idol.”

“It seemed to be a natural evolution to do something in that vein,” he said.

Actor Ian Brennan brought him the idea for a show set in the world of glee clubs, and Murphy, who himself had starred in high school and college musicals, sparked to it.

July 24
Actor Jamie Kennedy will produce and Nick Stahl will star in the indie drama “In Northwood.”

The film is a redemption tale centering on a man condemned to a mental hospital for committing murder. Kennedy described the project as taking place “at a moment when you’re at a crossroads and have to choose what decisions you would make to survive.”

First-time director D.W. Brown, a prolific playwright who was Kennedy’s acting teacher, will direct from his own script.

Olivia Wilde, Dash Mihok and Shohreh Aghdashloo will co-star.

Kennedy co-wrote and starred in the hip-hop comedy “Malibu’s Most Wanted,” which earned $34 million for Warner Bros. in 2003. The actor also created the Fran Drescher sitcom “Living With Fran” and created and starred in the WB Network prank show “The Jamie Kennedy Experiment.”

Stahl is best known for his role in “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” and played the lead role in the recent indie thriller “Quid Pro Quo.”

July 24
Gonzo journalist-screenwriter Evan Wright has moved from American cowboys on the Iraqi frontier to the cocaine cowboys of 1970s Miami.

Wright, who wrote the nonfiction book on which the HBO miniseries “Generation Kill” is based, has closed a deal to write the feature “Cocaine Cowboys” for Paramount. The deal grew out of his work on a book that Crown will publish in 2009.

Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg (“Hancock”) have been attached to star in and direct, respectively, the story of Jon Roberts, an injured Vietnam vet by age 20 who ended up involved in gangland takeovers of New York City nightclubs in the early ’70s (his uncle was the consigliere to Carlo Gambino). By the end of the decade, Roberts landed in Miami, dealt billions of dollars worth of coke for the Medellin drug cartel and ultimately spent 10 years in prison.

Billy Corben’s documentary “Cocaine Cowboys,” released by Magnolia in 2006, covered a slice of Roberts’ history.

“It’s really an exciting story about the secret history of America,” Wright said. “It’s also a story that outwardly seems familiar, but the more you get into it, it’s never really been told this way. It’s about a guy who was a cocaine smuggler in a mafia — we kind of know those stories — but he also worked closely with the government to smuggle arms for the Contras.”

Wright was a Rolling Stone reporter embedded with the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion Marines for two months during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He went on to co-write the HBO miniseries airing this month, and he’s adapting his March 2007 Vanity Fair article, “Pat Dollard’s War on Hollywood,” for Fox.

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July 22
Michael Vartan and David Cross will play bitter tire store rivals in the comedy “Demoted.”

Vartan will play Rodney McAdams, a hotshot Treadline Tires sales associate who delights in tormenting his less-than-cool colleague, Ken (Cross). But when their boss suddenly dies, Ken is promoted and assigns Rodney to a secretarial job as payback, giving the male chauvinist a taste of his own medicine.

J.B. Rogers (“American Pie 2”) will direct from a screenplay by Dan Callahan. The feature is a production of Parallel Media’s new genre arm, Parallel Zide.

Vartan (“One Hour Photo,” “Alias”) next stars opposite Dermot Mulroney in director Dan Ireland’s drama “Jolene: My Life.” Cross, whose credits include “The Colbert Report,” ”Freak Show” and “Aqua Teen Hunger Force,” can next be seen in Harold Ramis’ adventure comedy “Year One.”

July 22
TNT has given the green light to “Night and Day,” a drama pilot from “24” co-creator Joel Surnow and Todd Robinson.

The fast-paced, gritty drama about the life of an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms marks Surnow’s first series project since he departed “24” in February after seven years.

“Night and Day” was one of six drama projects on TNT’s development slate announced in May.

On the feature side, Surnow has romantic comedy “That Face” in the works at Morgan Creek Prods. and Universal Pictures.

Robinson, whose feature credits include “Lonely Hearts” and ”White Squall,” recently wrote and directed “The Last Full Measure,” which stars Morgan Freeman, Bruce Willis and Laurence Fishburne.

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