Paul Greengrass May Direct Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill in Olympic Bombing Drama

The combination of Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill proved to be a potent one in The Wolf of Wall Street, and by all accounts they got along famously. So it wasn't a surprise when they moved quickly on their next project together, and an altogether more serious one. They're set to star in an adaptation of the Vanity Fair article "American Nightmare: The Ballad of Richard Jewell", penned by Billy Ray (Shattered Glass) and centering on the real-life investigation surrounding '96 Olympics bombing. Ray recently wrote the script for Paul Greengrass' acclaimed drama, Captain Phillips, and they may be looking at a re-teaming, also.

According to Deadline, Paul Greengrass is circling the untitled drama, which would have Hill starring as Jewell, a security guard who discovered a suspicious package during the '96 Olympics in Atlanta and tried to get people out of harm's way. Soon after the tables turned and Jewell found himself the FBI's primary suspect in the case and the object of national scorn. DiCaprio would play the southern lawyer who helped guide Jewell through the nightmare.

This would be a perfect choice landing a director like Greengrass who excels with real-life dramas and documentaries. Greengrass hasn't signed on yet but if a deal comes together is there any reason to think this won't turn out great?

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Chiwetel Ejiofor and Gwyneth Paltrow to Headline 'The Secret In Their Eyes' Remake

Four years ago Juan Jose Campanella's Argentinian thriller The Secret In Their Eyes took home the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film, and it was richly deserved. The heavily thematic, haunting film combined elements of romance, mystery, and politics to make for an unforgettable experience, and so it was no surprise when word surface that Billy Ray (Shattered Glass, Breach) was planning to remake it. Other than Denzel Washington briefly flirting with the lead role some three years ago nothing ever came of it, but the project is very much alive and with two big stars coming aboard.

Oscar winners Chiwetel Ejiofor and and Gwyneth Paltrow are set to star in the film, with Billy Ray still writing and directing. The original story followed a judicial agent and a judge as they attempt to unearth the truth about a long-unsolved murder case. The new film will tweak the formula a little bit by having Ejiofor as an MI-5 agent who goes to work for the Boston FBI to solve the murder, discovering a shocking truth that sheds new light on the past.

The project is being shopped at Cannes and with those stars aboard it should have no problem lining up buyers. Here's hoping they can somehow replicate the intense soccer stadium scene from the first film. [THR]

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Billy Ray to Pen 'The Ballad of Richard Jewell' for Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill

Billy Ray's screenwriting career got off to a dubious start, one that it took a long time for me to get past. He first wrote Color of Night, a terrible Bruce Willis "thriller" that had me snoring in my theater seat. But Ray has since gone on to pen and direct some great films such as Shattered Glass, Breach, and writing The Hunger Games. He really scored this year with his script for Best Picture nominee, Captain Phillips, and now he's moving up to work on a biopic spearheaded by Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill.

Variety reports Ray will script The Ballad of Richard Jewell, about the life of the security guard who in 1996 became a hero and then a suspect in the Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta. Ray will be adapting the Vanity Fair article by Marie Brenner that serves as the basis for the story, detailing how the Jewell's personal and professional life was ruined by the false accusations. Hill is expected to play Jewell, with DiCaprio as the Southern lawyer who helps him through the media firestorm.

Still no word on a director, but given Ray's previous credits and obvious grip on dramatic biopics such as this, hopefully he'll be given some consideration.

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Billy Ray to pen competing script for 'The Mummy' reboot

There's always the chance that Universal's attempt to reboot The Mummy franchise could be a success, but right now it's sounding like a disaster. You might recall last year they hired Jon Spaihts, who at the time had a ton of fanfare after Prometheus, to pen the relaunch for producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. Not a bad decision, really. Then they hired Len Wiseman, who had just bombed on the Total Recall remake, to direct. He's not that different from Stephen Sommers, so it made some sense. Their next decision, though, is something of a headscratcher.

Vulture reports that Billy Ray, in my opinion one of the best screenwriters in Hollywood, has been hired to pen a competing script, which is in hopes of getting production going this year. They really want to have the next film ready by 2014, and somebody thinks having more scripts to deal with is a good way to accomplishing that.  More disturbing is what Vulture's source says about Universal's plan, which is to basically take parts of both scripts and piece them together like some horrible Frankenstein's monster....

"My suspicion is that one of them will be a ‘structure-and-body’ man, and one’s going to be a ‘character-and-dialogue’ man — and that they’ll then just gang-bang them together into one script, crediting both writers, because credit arbitration is usually a nightmare."

Ugh. Ray most recently wrote The Hunger Games, and has done some excellent work in the past. If you haven't seen the FBI thriller, Breach, you should make it a top priority. He also wrote and directed Shattered Glass, and has penned Paul Greengrass' upcoming Somali pirates film, Captain Phillips. So I have no doubt that Ray's draft will be strong, even if Universal finds a way to screw it up.

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Gavin O'Connor to direct Channing Tatum's 'Peter Pan' movie, 'Neverland'

There are two different Peter Pan films floating around out there, both with rather unique twists on J.M. Barrie's novel about the boy who wouldn't grow up. The first is Pan, directed by Ben Hibon and starring Aaron Eckhart, which reimagines Pan as a serial killer being tracked by detective Captain Hook. It's strange to me, too, but kinda inspired in a twisted sortof way. The other is being produced by Channing Tatum, and once went by the boring title of Peter Pan Begins, now simply known as Neverland.

The film has been in the works since last March, and as of right now Tatum has no plan to don the little green tights and start flying around. Not much has been heard on it since, but with the actor set to make a big splash with 21 Jump Street, the ball appears to be rolling pretty quickly. Variety reports that Gavin O'Connor, director of Warrior and the still-awesome hockey drama, Miracle, will step behind the camera. Based on a script by Billy Ray(Breach), who also had a hand in writing The Hunger Games, the story is an origin tale that may include Peter Pan and Captain Hook as brothers. Seriously.

Even with a director lined up, it's still fairly early into this one. No start date has been set, and casting has yet to begin, although I wouldn't be shocked to see Tatum fit in there somewhere. Maybe as Hook?

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Billy Ray, JJ Abrams planning mystery project

When I think of the combination of J.J. Abrams and writer Billy Ray(Color of Night, Shattered Glass), the first idea that comes to my head is "new age espionage flick". Abrams' career really took off a few years ago with the help of a sexy Jennifer Garner in the spy series, Alias. Billy Ray was the writer of the excellent FBI flick, Breach, and the political thriller, State of Play. Maybe I'm totally off base, but with Deadline reporting that Paramount has picked up an untitled pitch from the duo, we're bound to find out sooner rather than later.

There are no other details at this point, and probably we won't see anything come of this for awhile. Abrams is confirmed to be helming the Star Trek sequel next year. Billy Ray has the big screen adaptation of 24 on his plate, along with the a script for a revamped Peter Pan story starring Channing Tatum. Not to mention he'll be writing the American remake of The Secret in Their Eyes, and the Somali pirates flick, A Captain's Story starring Tom Hanks.

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Denzel Washington may star in remake of The Secret In Their Eyes

Ahhh, the offer story. I typically hate them but in this case I feel  compelled, because it has to do with one of today's great actors who hasn't pushed himself in years: Denzel Washington. And it also involves the remake of one of the best foreign language films of the last few years: The Secret In Their Eyes. I've been hoping the film had died a quiet death since we hadn't heard anything since last October, but alas....

I had actually just finished talking to my good friend Tim Gordon about the American response to foreign films, and the subject of The Secret In Their Eyes came up. All it did was serve to remind how great Juan Jose Campanella's multi-layered, emotional crime thriller really was. So much so that I didn't really want to bring up that a remake had been announced last year with Bill Ray(Shattered Glass, Breach) writing and directing. We haven't heard squat about it until now, with Twitch reporting that Washington has been offered the lead role.

Now this doesn't mean Denzel will accept the job. In fact I'd be sorta surprised if he did. The reason I say that is because he hasn't taken on a film that would require him to really flex his acting muscles in a very long time. I bet those muscles have long since atrophied. The story revolves around an ex investigator, still racked with guilt and painful memories over an unsolved murder decades prior. While the film is a completely effective crime procedural, there's also a very mature love story. It also features one of the most dynamic chase scenes set in an arena during a soccer match.

I love Billy Ray. I love the source material. I hope this never happens. Not sure Denzel's the right fit, either. We'll see how this pans out.

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Sure Shots: Channing Tatum; Bryce Dallas Howard; Nicholas Hoult

* Channing Tatum in little green tights? I'm sure the ladies will love it. The buffed up actor is currently shopping a project called Peter Pan Begins, which sounds like a really ill-conceived origin story. Screenwriter Billy Ray(Shattered Glass) and producer Joe Roth(Alice in Wonderland) are aboard as well. More than likely Tatum won't actually be starring but could just be producing. Lord let's hope that's all it is.  Personally I think people should just check out the underrated 2004 Peter Pan and call it a day. Thanks to THR for the exclusively break on that story.

* We love Bryce Dallas Howard here at Punch Drunk Critics International, but I have to admit her directorial debut sounds derivative as heck.  She's set to follow in daddy's footsteps with The Originals, about a group of childhood friends who reunite as young adults when a former teacher falls into a coma. Wasn't that the premise behind Grown Ups? Are they going camping? Ugh. Howard and her brother-in-law Dane Charbonneau penned the script. She describes it as a "Breakfast Club for my generation". Double ugh.  Apparently one of the roles was written for Zoe Saldana(The Losers). Run, Zoe, run!

* You make one movie as Colin Firth's boy toy and suddenly you're Hollywood's fresh new plaything. Nicholas Hoult has signed on to Warm Bodies, Jonathan Levine's adaptation of Isaac Marion's upcoming novel about a relationship between a zombie and the human girlfriend of one of his victims. Shooting will begin this summer and should complete around the time of Levine's cancer comedy, 50/50, releases. That film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen. Thanks to THR for this story as well.

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Trailer Time: Source Code, starring Jake Gyllenhall and directed by Duncan Jones

A futuristic, high tech Groundhog Day? Sign me up. I give Jake  Gyllenhall a lot of shit for his puppy dog face and ill-fitting attempts at being a ladies man(all of which you'll see in abundance in Love and Other Drugs). In Source Code he's in pure action mode, as a soldier sent back in time in a continual 10 minute loop to try and figure out the source of a terrorist attack.

This is Duncan Jones's follow-up to Moon, last year's old school sci-fi flick that has made him an instant favorite. The script was written by Ben Ripley, but I'm expecting big things from this mainly because Billy Ray(State of Play, Breach, Shattered Glass) did some punching up on it. The guy hasn't written a bad flick in years. I wonder, since he's also adapting 24 for the big screen, if Billy Ray didn't toy with the idea of a Jack Bauer cameo. He seems like a natural fit.

Source Code stars Gyllenhall, Michelle Monaghan, Jeffrey Wright, and Vera Farmiga. Look for it in theaters on April 15th, 2011. Check out the trailer below!

Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes with a jolt to find himself on a commuter train heading into Chicago. Although the other passengers all seem to know him, he has absolutely no idea where – or even who – he is. The last thing Colter remembers is flying a helicopter mission in Iraq, but here he is in someone else’s life going through someone else’s morning commute. Before he can do anything an express train zooms by on the opposite track and a bomb explodes, seemingly killing Colter and all the other passengers. Colter comes to in an isolation chamber, strapped to a seat, and wearing his military flight suit. He still has no idea what’s happening, except that he’s being spoken to by mission controller Carol Goodwin (Vera Farmiga), who calmly recites a series of memory questions to which Colter is shocked to realize he knows the answers.


He learns he’s part of an operation called “Beleaguered Castle,” but before he can progress any further, Goodwin starts up the machinery and suddenly Colter is back on the train, at exactly the same time he first appeared there, once again speeding through Chicago with the same group of commuters. Colter figures he’s in some kind of simulation exercise, with his task being to find the bomber on board the train before it goes off again. Living the explosion over and over, Colter must uncover the identity of the bomber, while also figuring out what the alternative universe of “Beleaguered Castle” is. Adding to the puzzle, Colter uses the second chance opportunities to make peace with his father, and to find romance with a fellow passenger on the train.

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Billy Ray to direct remake of The Secret in Their Eyes

When The Secret in Their Eyes beat out The White Ribbon and A Prophet at the Academy Awards this past year, I was one of those who did a great big Scooby Doo "HUH??".  I hadn't even heard of Juan Campanella's thriller at that time. Why? Because it hadn't hit our shores yet. When it did and I finally saw it, I understood why it won, and there's a likelihood it'll end up on my Best Of list at the end of the year. It truly is a meserizing, rich experience.

Since it's a foreign film that's received universal acclaim of course we can't just leave it alone. It has to be remade. >sigh<  Deadline reports that Warner Brothers, who own the rights, have brought on Billy Ray(Breach) to direct.  Campanella will be serving as executive producer, so hopefully he'll keep this version as faithful to his vision as possible.

Then again I have complete faith in Billy Ray to pull this off. He's come a long way since he inflicted the heinous Bruce Willis thriller Color of Night on us back in 1994. Since that time he's written and directed two phenomenal films: the only good Hayden Christensen movie, Shattered Glass; and 2007's Breach. He's also been hired to pen the script for the film version of 24.  Expect him to find a way to write the script for The Secret in Their Eyes as well.

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