Max Landis And Nick Antosca Ready To Scare With Channel Zero

A new anthology horror TV series

Chronicle writer Max Landis already has one big horror project on the way, with Victor Frankenstein, based on his script, landing later this year. He’s now teaming up with Hannibal TV writer Nick Antosca for Channel Zero, described as a new scary anthology show. 

The series will be based at the US SyFy channel and aims to model itself roughly on American Horror Story by telling one narrative across each season. But unlike Ryan Murphy’s series, Channel Zero – in its first season at least – will be based on an existing story, in this case Kris Straub’s Candle Cove. It spins a yarn about a mysterious 1980s children’s TV series, the show’s role in a string of murders and one man’s dark secret.

Straub’s story originated online as part of the communal creepypasta project, where users share tales and generally try to terrify the living daylights out of each other. Landis, who is already busy as a writer and director, and has a variety of projects on the go, will produce and oversee the show with Antosca, who is handling the writing. “We love the idea of doing seasons of TV like rich, character-driven horror novels, and for Channel Zero: Candle Cove we’ve expanded this great short story Candle Cove into something really nightmarish and haunting and surreal,” Landis and Antosca say in a statement reported by Deadline. “We can’t wait to dig in deeper and bring this to life.” There’s no indication yet of when the show will debut. 

from Empire News

Reese Witherspoon Fighting Ashley's War

Abi Morgan will adapt the true-life tale

Reese Witherspoon continues to find interesting projects to produce and potentially star in. And now she along with Fox 2000 have The Iron Lady and Suffragette writer Abi Morgan aboard to adapt Gayle Tzemach Lemmon’s book Ashley’s War. 

The nonfiction book, which carries the subtitle The Untold Story Of A Team Of Women Soldiers On The Special Ops Battlefield, follows what happened when the US Army Special Operations Command created a pilot programme to allow elite female soldiers on the battlefield alongside the likes of the Green Berets serving in Afghanistan. The unit, known as CST-2, put its potential Army candidates through a rigorous selection process that resulted in the troops seeing action. First Lieutenant Ashley White became the first CST member killed in action. 

Witherspoon may well take a role in any eventual film, but Morgan will have to write the script first. She has Suffragette, with Sarah Gavron directing, due on October 30 and is attached to a variety of projects, including Taming Of The Shrew, The Rules Of Inheritance and Little House On The Prairie. Witherspoon has several films of her own in development and is attached to David E. Kelley’s new series Big Little Lies.

from Empire News

Rooney Mara In Talks For David Fincher's New Utopia

She's up for the HBO version of the Channel 4 show

We already know that David Fincher has decided to dive headfirst into small screen work, and is gearing up to direct every episode of Utopia, adapted from Dennis Kelly’s Channel 4 original. He’s locking in a regular collaborator for one of the lead roles, with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’s Rooney Mara in negotiations.

Utopia set things in motion with the discovery of a manuscript for a legendary graphic novel known as The Utopia Experiments, long shrouded in mystery. When a small group of previously unconnected people unites in their shared interest, things take a much darker turn.

It turns out that they are by no means the only ones interested in the manuscript. Targeted swiftly and relentlessly by a murderous organisation known as The Network, the terrified group are left with only one option if they want to survive: run. 

Mara will play the Jessica Hyde character as portrayed in the original by Fiona O’Shaughnessy, though all involved are figuring out a way to fit the hefty shooting commitment for the show’s first season into her film-focused schedule.

HBO is pushing hard for Fincher to start work on the new Utopia, which has scripts by Gone Girl’s Gillian Flynn. And the director has time in his diary, because Video Synchronicity, his planned series based on his early days in the music video production business, has been shut down after filming just a few episodes because it wasn’t gelling with what the cable channel’s bosses were hoping for. Utopia, which already has a series order, will kick off production later this year. Mara, meanwhile, will be seen in Pan (due October 16), Weightless, Lion, Kubo And The Two Strings and Todd Haynes’ Carol, which won rave reviews at Cannes and generated Oscar talk for Mara and Cate Blanchett. 

from Empire News

Creed Trailer Packs A Punch

Michael B. Jordan is trained on the Sly

Lots of big movies these days want to re-visit a classic franchise, taking elements from the older films, twisting storylines, adding in fancy effects tricks and re-casting to ensure actors in case a new series is ignited. But Creed – which stars Michael B. Jordan – is ready to instead revitalise the Rocky movies with some appropriate new blood. Take a look at the first trailer for the film. 

Creed, shot by Jordan’s Fruitvale Station director Ryan Coogler, finds the actor as Adonis Johnson, a driven young fighter who despite the boxing ability pulsing through his veins, never knew his father, world heavyweight champion Apollo Creed, who died in the ring before he was born.

But while he’s not so eager to embrace connections to his father, he knows he needs a good trainer, so he heads to Philadelphia to find one of Apollo’s most famous opponents: Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone). Despite his misgivings and insistence that he’s out of the fight game, Rocky sees in Adonis the spirit of his father, and agrees to take him on. And both men realise they need this, as they’re facing dangerous opponents.

With Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad and real life pro boxer Anthony Bellew in the cast, Creed will land here on November 27. It’s already looking like it could be something special... 

from Empire News

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Anthony Mackie Will Be Martin Luther King For All The Way

He'll star alongside Bryan Cranston

Selma brought Civil Rights activist Martin Luther King back to UK screens in February, with David Oyelowo in the role. Now Anthony Mackie will be portraying the historical icon, signing on to star opposite Bryan Cranston in play adaptation All The Way.

Jay Roach is directing the TV movie for HBO, working from playwright Robert Schenkkan’s own adaptation. Cranston, who won a Tony for his performance on stage, is playing 36th US President Lyndon B. Johnson through a turbulent time in his career. When the assassination of John F. Kennedy rockets Johnson into the Oval Office, he has to push through ground breaking Civil Rights legislation while also battling to win re-election. It was, all told, a tough first year for him, capped by success at the polls.

Mackie will be MLK, who worked with Johnson to help move the legislation forward, with Deadline reporting that the relationship between the two men will be a lot more cordial in All The Way, with the filmed version boosting the prominence of Dr. King. 

All The Way is scheduled to start shooting in September. Mackie is at work on Captain America: Civil War and has shot Our Brand Is Crisis. He’ll also be seen in festive comedy X-Mas, which is out here on December 11. 

from Empire News

American Sniper Writer Jason Hall Says Thank You For Your Service

He's in talks to make his directorial debut

Writer Jason Hall already has a connection to Steven Spielberg: the director was attached for a while to make his American Sniper script before passing on the job to Clint Eastwood. Now Hall’s latest military-themed screenplay, Thank You For Your Service, has become available after Spielberg flirted with the idea but moved on to other things. This time, though, Hall is taking on the job himself. 

The writer adapted the script from David Finkel’s nonfiction 2014 tome, which followed what happened to American veterans home from Iraq and their struggles to adapt to civilian life after their experiences in combat.

It’s a subject Hall knows well after working closely with American Sniper subject Chris Kyle, who chronicled his own struggles with post-war life and his efforts to help others before his death.

Hall has lots of other scripts floating around Hollywood and it’s perhaps not surprising someone would give him a shot at directing after Sniper scored him an Oscar nomination. DreamWorks, which snapped up the rights to the book in 2013 before it even hits shelves, is backing this one. 

from Empire News

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