Can Jonas Cuarón do for the sea what he did for space? That’s what Warner Bros. is hoping as they’ve tapped the “Gravity” co-writer for an equally ambitious project. Cuarón will take his pen to “The Lost City,” a project that will be “a new take on the mythical underwater kingdom” of Atlantis. That has been a hot property around the WB lot, with Peter Jackson apparently eyeing it at one point, and it seems Cuarón is the guy they trust to get it moving. He’ll have to work out a few things as he starts directing “Desierto” with Gael García Bernal next year, but it looks like Cuarón and WB are figuring out a way to make everyone happy. [Variety]
If you’ve been reading the news for the past week or so, you might’ve heard about Silk Road, the online marketplace for illegal drugs that was recently shut down by the Feds, who arrested the founder on a laundry list of charges, including ordering a hit on someone who threatened to expose him. And now the movie is coming. And who better to pen it than author and screenwriter Dennis Lehane (“Mystic River,” “Shutter Island,” “The Wire“). Fox has selected him to pen “Silk Road,” which will be based on a forthcoming article for Epic written by Joshua Davis. And with the story still unfolding in real life, this could take some interesting dimensions. [Deadline]
Well, here’s an interesting little factoid: Jonathan Nolan‘s wife is a screenwriter named Lisa Joy, and it seems she has no problem matching her husband when it comes to ambitious scripts. She’s just pocketed a cool $1.75 million for “Reminiscence,” which she just sold to Legendary. The “Inception“/”Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind“-esque script “revolves around a man who runs a service that allows people to relive their memories and gets pulled into a deadly plot.” Development is now starting on this which is one of the biggest script sales of the year. [Variety]
Finally, Slamdance winner Matt Johnson, who took Best Narrative prize for his debut feature “The Dirties,” has graduated to the majors. He’s been hired by WB to pen their big screen adaptation of the kids’ classic series of books, “Encyclopedia Brown.” The film about a young boy detective has been in development forever, but hopefully Johnson will have the magic to make it finally happen. [Deadline]