Billy Bob Thornton joins Three Nights team
Billy Bob Thornton has signed on to produce Three Nights In August, a scripted baseball tale based on Buzz Bissinger’s well-received book.
The nonfiction tome looks at a 2003 series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs, taking readers into the mind and dugout of Cards skipper Tony La Russa.
Thornton, known to be a vocal Cardinals fan, will join Red Bird Cinema managing director John Loar in producing the picture. Writer-actor Kevin Pollak, La Russa and Bissinger will executive produce.
Thornton is known primarily as an actor and director, though he did produce one movie, the Tex-Mex romance All The Pretty Horses, which he also directed.
There’s a possibility he could take a role in the picture, but it likely won’t be the La Russa part, Loar said.
Baseball projects like Moneyball have had a rough time in Hollywood of late, but the project’s producers say they think “August” offers a refreshing take on the subject.
“There are a lot of baseball movies out there, and a lot of them are based on the won-loss component,” Loar said. “What this does is go inside the day-to-day happenings of the locker room and how a manager thinks about all the decisions he has to make. It’s going to be challenging, but Billy Bob has a good handle on it.”
Loar said he’s hopeful that if the appropriate writer and director are brought on board, the project could shoot as early as next year.
Emily Blunt dances into The Adjustment Bureau
Emily Blunt will star opposite Matt Damon in The Adjustment Bureau, a sci-fi love story.
George Nolfi is directing the Universal Pictures project. The story, which Nolfi adapted from a Philip K. Dick short story, follows an on-the-rise congressman (Damon) who meets a beautiful ballet dancer only to discover that strange circumstances keep them apart.
Blunt will play the dancer.
Blunt, whose screen credits include The Devil Wears Prada, Dan In Real Life and Charlie Wilson’s War, will appear later this year in The Wolf Man, which is scheduled for a November 6 release. She is shooting Gulliver’s Travels with Jack Black in the U.K.
Daany Huston crowned in Robin Hood picture
In a role fit for a member of Hollywood royalty, Danny Huston will play King Richard I in the untitled Robin Hood movie starring Russell Crowe as the mythical hero.
Production on the Imagine/Universal film is underway in England with Ridley Scott at the helm.
Huston will step into the shoes of the historical figure King Richard, who became known as Richard the Lionheart because of his exploits in the Third Crusade.
Huston, the son of director John Huston, appeared this summer on the big screen in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, playing Wolverine’s nemesis William Stryker and recently finished work on Clash Of The Titans, in which he plays Poseidon.
Vegas Avengers taking flight at Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. and Public Enemies producer Kevin Misher are seeking vengeance. They are teaming for Vegas Avengers, an action picture with echoes of Top Gun.
Avengers tells the story of a hot-shot pilot who, after taking too many risks, is forced to enter a top-secret programme that flies experimental, unmanned planes. Much of the action takes place at Nellis Air Force base just outside Las Vegas.
Established during World War II, Nellis has a rich history, having stored large caches of advanced weapons and served as headquarters to a top-secret Cold War programme involving U.S.-piloted Russian MiGs. The script will be written by up-and-coming scribe Soo Hugh.
