DEVELOPMENT HELL GETS SOME AIR CONDITIONING THIS SUMMER
Thought it was time for a little status update on some of my pet projects in development:
American Saviors: A "dark road trip buddy action comedy" script written by the talented yet undiscovered Jim Christell. We secured a coordinator at WME to help us attach the right director to the project. With the writers' strike going on and a potential actors' strike to follow, we hope to land someone in this position quickly followed by notable cast as we seek to capitalize on a lack of competition in the marketplace. (Side note: Jim has been prolific lately. He also finished his fantasy period drama Between the Stairs and we've started developing a new comedy show called Del Rey Park.)
Worth the Fight: We locked 9-1-1 star Oliver Stark in the lead role. He read the script right away and loved it. Nice validation for the years of development we put into it. We have also secured a coordinator at UTA, who I hope can help us package other stars alongside Oliver. Director is Sean McNamara (of Soul Surfer fame).
Will to Win: This adaptation of a Jim Stovall book of the same name centers on a Native American high school girl who seeks help from her spirit guide, Will Rogers, when she makes the boys' baseball team. Prey producer Jhane Myers just signed on as an EP and is helping us take the project to talent and studios. Here's an article about it that was recently posted in Variety: https://variety.com/2023/film/news/prey-jhane-myers-will-rogers-baseball-film-1235620374/
The Pillars of Dawn: My very talented writing client, Athena, wrote the TV adaptation of her own novel series, which we have recently been developing with the help of writer/producer Kamran Pasha (Sleeper Cell, Nikita). Numerous actors have expressed interest or attached themselves, too, including Erica Cerra, Arnas Fedaravičius, Benjamin Stone and Phaedra Nielson, with Jane Seymour circling. We put together a sizzle that I think does a great job teasing the story, the tone and the world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2F5PPqdgiI
Icon: My newest client, James Jimenez, has been working on his own script about a rock star who goes missing and the wife who seems to be the local sheriff's number one suspect. Our goal is to have this one ready to shop by year's end.
More to come as I work to bring these and other projects to fruition.
