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The latest press and reviews for HAZARD PAY PRODUCTIONS.
By Anthony D'Alessandro
DEADLINE HOLLYWOOD
August 6, 2020
EXCLUSIVE: Antoine Fuqua is set to direct the Bron Studios feature Siege of Bethlehem based on the book A Season in Bethlehem: Unholy War in a Sacred Place written by former Newsweek Jerusalem bureau chief Joshua Hammer. I hear Fuqua will direct Siege of Bethlehem following his Will Smith Apple Studios’ movie Emancipation. That runaway slave action thriller, as Deadline first told you, was the biggest film festival acquisition deal in history, netting out to $120M.
Bron is producing Siege of Bethlehem alongside Michael Kase (6 Underground, 13 Hours, Transformers), from a screenplay co-written by Avi Issacharoff (Fauda), the Palestinian and Arab Affairs Correspondent for Haaretz, and Matt Cook (Patriots Day, Triple 9), a military veteran who served two combat tours in Iraq.
Inspired by a true story, Siege of Bethlehem tells how a Muslim, an Israeli Jew, and a Christian American came together to prevent a battle from breaking out between the Israeli army and a group of armed Palestinian militants who had taken refuge in Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity, the believed birthplace of Jesus. At the close of 39 days, despite the resistance put up by many of their superiors and colleagues, the three managed to reach a resolution, ending the siege and avoiding an all-out war on the church’s hallowed grounds.
Issacharoff and Lior Raz, the creative team behind Netflix’s critically acclaimed Fauda television series, Kase and Bron’s Aaron L. Gilbert (Bombshell, Joker) will produce. Jason Cloth of Creative Wealth Media will serve as executive producer.
“We are excited to partner with talented storytellers who have an unparalleled understanding of this extraordinary event and with action film icons who have the ability to bring it to life in the most powerful way,” said Gilbert.
“I’ve been shepherding this project for 15 years,” says Kase. “There couldn’t be a more appropriate time for a movie like this; it’s a story about uniting people through peace at a time of significant unrest.”
Fuqua’s directing credits including such hits as The Equalizer franchise, the Oscar-winning Training Day, The Magnificent Seven, and Olympus Has Fallen have racked up $1.4 billion at the global box office. He is repped by CAA. Issacharoff and Raz are represented by UTA, Artists First, and attorney Zifferen Brittenham. Cook is repped by WME and Anonymous Content. Kase is repped by Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern.
by Erik Pederson
DEADLINE HOLLYWOOD
May 16, 2019
Secret Service agent Mike Banning basically saved Western civilization twice since 2013, and now he stands accused of trying to kill the U.S. president in Angel Has Fallen. Check out the first trailer above.
Here’s how it goes down: Just after President Allan Trumbull (Morgan Freeman) tells his trusted confidant Banning (Gerard Butler) that he’s making him director of the Secret Service, there is a drone-based assassination attempt on Trumbull. The agent is wrongfully accused and taken into custody. After escaping from capture, Banning becomes a man on the run and must evade his own agency and outsmart the FBI in order to find the real threat to the president. Desperate to uncover the truth, he turns to unlikely allies to help clear his name, keep his family from harm and save the country from imminent danger.
Jada Pinkett Smith, Lance Reddick, Tim Blake Nelson, Piper Perabo co-star along with Nick Nolte and Danny Huston.
Ric Roman Waugh takes over the director’s chair for Angel Has Fallen and co-wrote the screenplay with Robert Mark Kamen and Matt Cook. Butler, Alan Siegel, Matt O’Toole, John Thompson, Les Weldon, Yariv Lerner are the producers. Lionsgate opens the explosion-laden and gunfire-strafed threequel from Millennium Films on August 23.
by Nellie Andreeva and Denise Petski
DEADLINE HOLLYWOOD
November 16, 2018
Fox has given a script commitment with penalty to an hourlong female-centric Texas Rangers drama from writer Matt Cook, former Empire showrunner Ilene Chaiken and 20th Century Fox TV.
Written by Cook, the untitled Female Texas Ranger project centers on Lauren Crawford Flynn, one of only two females in the legendary and notoriously tough Texas Rangers, who balances the demands of her intense, high stakes job in a male dominated world with the challenges of being a single mom to a young teenage daughter.
Cook executive produces with Chaiken. 20th Century Fox TV, where Chaiken is under an overall deal, is the studio.
The project reflects the inroads women have made at the Texas Rangers. The nearly 200-year-old law enforcement agency named its first female lieutenant in 2014.
This is the second project Chaiken has sold this cycle. She has a big put pilot commitment at ABC for hourlong drama The Ambassador, from Eva Longoria and Ben Spector’s UnbelieEVAble Entertainment, 3 Arts and 20th TV.
Chaiken, who created and executive produced the Showtime series The L Word, was executive producer/showrunner on the first 3.5 seasons of Empire. She also is an executive producer on the Emmy-winning series The Handmaid’s Tale. Chaiken is repped by WME and 3Arts.
by Diana Lodderhose
DEADLINE
MAY 17, 2017
Joel Kinnaman, Rosamund Pike, Common and Clive Owen are set to star in Andrea Di Stefano’s Three Seconds, based on the best-selling Swedish novel by Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström. Bloom is handling international sales and introducing the title to buyers in Cannes this week.
The action-thriller was written by Matt Cook with revisions by Rowan Joffé and Alex Garland with current revisions by DiStefano. Thunder Road Pictures’ Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee are producing alongside The Fyzz Facility’s Wayne Marc Godfrey, Robert Jones, Mark Lane, James Harris and Ollie Madden. The Fyzz Facility is also financing the film. Thunder Road’s Jonathan Fuhrman and Magnolia Entertainment’s Shelley Browning are Executive Producers.
Three Seconds follows reformed-criminal and former special ops soldier Pete Hoffman who, in order to free himself from jail and return to his wife and daughter, has been working undercover for crooked FBI handlers to infiltrate the Polish mob’s drug trade in New York. In a final step towards freedom, Hoffman must return to the one place he’s fought so hard to leave, Bale Hill Prison, where his mission becomes a race against time when a drug deal goes wrong and threatens his identity as a mole. The film is currently in pre-production.
Di Stefano recently wrote and directed Escobar: Paradise Lost starring Benicio Del Toro and Josh Hutcherson. Kinnaman is best known for his starring role in AMC’s The Killing. He recently starred in Suicide Squad for Warner Bros. Pike has appeared in Gone Girl and Jack Reacher while Common has had roles in Selma and Suicide Squad. Owen’s credits include Closer, Children of Men and Sin City.
by Anita Busch
and Mike Fleming Jr
DEADLINE HOLLYWOOD
March 31, 2015
EXCLUSIVE: A new faith-based project with A-list stars involved is coming now from Warner Bros. The project, Apostle Paul, is being developed at the studio for Hugh Jackman to star in the role as the Jewish man of God (also known as Saul of Tarsus) who crossed over to speak to the Romans and preach the word.
Jackman would produce, along with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck under their Pearl Street banner. A screenplay is currently being penned by Matt Cook (Triple Nine, By Way Of Helena). Also producing are Jennifer Todd (Pearl Street) and Chris Clarke, who helped initiate the project.
Paul was not one of the 12 original disciples but was converted on the Road to Damascus when Christ came to him and he was blinded by a great,white light. He was blinded until a man named Ananias prayed and restored his eyesight. Paul became one of the most important messengers of Jesus and went on trips to Rome and appeared before the rulers because he was also a Roman citizen. He is credited with writing 14 of 27 books in the New Testament.
Paul was also the founder of many churches. He began as the son of a Pharisee and steeped in Judaism. However, after being converted by Christ, he continued to preach for God and carried the message of Christ’s word. He was also put in prison for preaching when a miracle occurred. While in chains, he began singing Jesus’ praises and the prison shook like a violent earthquake and his chains fell off and jails doors opened and they left as frightened prison guards allowed them to pass.
The move follows the success of several other faith-based films including Son Of God, God’s Not Dead, Heaven Is For Real, to name a few. Jackman, of course, has a huge fan base due to the X-Men and Wolverine movies so his name and star power is well-established across the globe. The next and probably last Wolverine film hits theaters March 3, 2017. He is also on board to star as PT Barnum for The Greatest Showman On Earth. Same with Affleck and Damon (Bourne Supremacy franchise).
Jackman, Affleck, Damon and Cook are repped by WME. Jackman is also repped by attorneys Sloane, Offer, Weber and Dern. Cook is also repped by Anonymous Content.
by Dave McNary
VARIETY.COM
NOVEMBER 8, 2012
Matt Cook to write, direct feature based on Karl Marlantes novel. Thunder Road Pictures is gearing up to scale “Matterhorn,” developing the feature based on Karl Marlantes’ Vietnam War novel and setting it up with Matt Cook to write and direct.
Marlantes, a highly decorated Vietnam veteran, spent more than 30 years writing the book. Iwanyk and Cook, an Iraq war veteran himself, forged a relationship with Marlantes when the book was first released in 2009 — leading led to a creative alliance to develop the project independently as a vehicle for Cook to direct before taking the project out.
The book is set in Vietnam in 1969 where Matterhorn is a fire-support base located between Laos and the DMZ. The key characters are a second lieutenant who’s a recent college graduate and his compatriots, most of whom are teenagers. Thunder Road is in post on “The Seventh Son” starring Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore for Legendary Pictures. Cook has penned a pair of Black List scripts: “999,” which has John Hillcoat attached to direct; and “By Way of Helena.”
Marlantes is repped by ICM Partners. Cook is repped by WME and Anonymous.
