'Top Gun 2' Finds a New Writer in Justin Marks

In the works for years and seemingly put on ice after Tony Scott's unfortunate passing, a sequel to 1986 classic Top Gun is getting off the ground once again. After Peter Craig (The Town) had been hired to write the script some time, Justin Marks has been brought on to pen a brand new draft that would put Maverick back in the pilot's seat.

Marks is the writer on Jon Favreau's The Jungle Book, and is also attached to script comic book adaptation Federal Bureau of Physics for Warner Bros. and David Goyer. Tom Cruise is expected to return as fighter pilot Lieutenant Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, but he may not be spending a lot of time in the air.  While Cruise has previously said the film would be in the same tone as the original, Scott was envisioning something entirely different. He wanted to tell a story set very much in the present when drone technology has become integral to the war effort.

Even with this move things are still pretty early on. Paramount and Jerry Bruckheimer still need to find a director and there doesn't seem to be a timetable for filming. [THR]

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David Goyer Bringing Vertigo's FBP: Federal Bureau of Physics to the Big Screen

David Goyer may be the man at the center of Warner Bros.' superhero universe, but he's also using that position to adapt DC titles that are on the fringes. He's already helping Joseph Gordon-Levitt on a screen version of Neil Gaiman's Sandman, and now he's bringing Vertigo Comics' popular  FBP: Federal Bureau of Physics to theaters.

Goyer is producing an adaptation of the ongoing comics series by Simon Oliver and Robbi Rodriguez, with Justin Marks working on the screenplay. Goyer and Marks have been developing the Green Arrow film, Escape from Super Max, for years without anything really happening with it. He also penned the screenplay for Warner Bros.' Suicide Squad film that never happened. Marks is also coming off scripting Jon Favreau's version of The Jungle Book.

FBP: Federal Bureau of Physics takes place in a near future when the fabric of space-time has been distorted and quantum disturbances have become a way of life. The FBP is a team of experts in the field of quantum physics put together to try and deal with the fallout. The focus is on a single agent, the brash Adam Hardy, as he ventures to an alternate dimension known as the "Bubbleverse" for a unique rescue mission.

FBP is arguably the hottest books Vertigo is currently publishing, so it was only a matter of time before it was targeted for a film. Hopefully this one moves faster than the forever-developing adaptation of Y: The Last Man.  [Deadline]

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Disney Developing Live-Action Reboot of 'The Jungle Book'

Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book is definitely part of the public domain, but chances are most think of it as one of Disney's animated classics, thanks to the 1967 film most saw as kids. Disney probably recognizes this as well, and as they've been busy developing live-action versions of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty aka Maleficent, they've begun gathering the "bare necessities" to bring The Jungle Book to the silver screen.

Justin Marks, who drafted David Fincher's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, has been hired to begin penning an adaptation of Kipling's 19th century collection of stories centered on Mowgli, a young boy raised in the jungle by animals. While Disney has a leg up on notoriety thanks to the previous film, they will face some stiff competition from Warner Bros., who are developing their own live-action film from Harry Potter scribe, Steve Kloves.

Disney has been trying to get The Jungle Book right for awhile, releasing a live-action film in 1994 that starred Cary Elwes and Jason Scott Lee. And then there was the 1998 straight-to-DVD The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story, which featured the oddball cast of Earth Kitt, Clancy Brown, Stephen Tobolowsky, and Fred Savage. As you probably guessed, it's pretty terrible. [THR]

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