Doug Liman

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Liraz Charhi joins 'Fair Game'
Doug Liman to direct pic about Valerie Plame Wilson
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Liraz Charhi is on her way to Baghdad.

The Israeli actress has been cast in "Fair Game," the Doug Liman-directed drama about outed CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson. Naomi Watts already has been cast as Plame. Sean Penn plays her husband, ambassador Joseph Wilson.

Charhi will play Sawsan, an Iraqi doctor in Cleveland whom Plame sends undercover to Baghdad to gather intelligence on Saddam Hussein's nuclear program in exchange for bringing her brother to the U.S.

The movie centers on how Plame's status was compromised because of a leak from the Bush administration, allegedly in retaliation for a 2003 op-ed piece her husband wrote claiming the administration manipulated intelligence on Iraq.

Akiva Goldsman of Weed Road and Jerry and Janet Zucker of Zucker Prods. are producing the film. William Pohlad's River Road is financing.

The film, based on Plame's memoir, is filming in New York and the Middle East.

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Doug Liman to direct film on Attica uprising
Prison-based pic is from 'Precious' scribe Geoffrey Fletcher
Source: Hollwood Reporter

Director Doug Liman and screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher are joining forces to re-create the 1971 Attica state prison uprising.

The four-day confrontation between prisoners and guards -- described as a riot by some, a rebellion by others -- inspired Al Pacino's famous chant of "Attica! Attica!" in "Dog Day Afternoon."

Liman also will produce "Attica" with David Bartis under their Hypnotic production banner, along with Elliot Abbott ("Awakenings," "A League of Their Own"), who is financing the project's development. Longtime Liman collaborator Avrum Ludwig will also produce.

Liman brings a personal connection to the project, since his father, the late Arthur Liman, served as chief counsel to the New York State Special Commission on Attica Prison and co-authored the commission's report chastising then-Gov. Nelson Rockefeller and prison authorities for their role in the riot, in which 32 inmates and 10 hostages were killed, 39 of them in an assault by state police officers.

In a recent blog posting, Limon described visiting the prison with Fletcher, an Oscar nominee for his "Precious" screenplay.

"The tour was astounding," he wrote. "We followed the steps the prisoners took as they overwhelmed the guards; saw the radiators they ripped off the walls and the gates they smashed open with them. We left with so many stories and names and contacts of people who were there to continue our research."

Liman, director of "The Bourne Ultimatum" and "The Bourne Identity," has directed "Fair Game," starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts as Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame, which will be released this year.

Liman, Bartis, Fletcher and Abbott are all repped by CAA, which is handling domestic rights on the film. Fletcher is also represented by Leslie Conliffe at IPG.

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Doug Liman in negotiations to direct 'Three Musketeers'
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Doug Liman is in negotiations to direct Warner Bros.' version of "The Three Musketeers."

The project is in a race with Summit's Musketeers movie, which helmer Paul W.S. Anderson has been working on since September. Anderson's project, which will be in 3D, is in the casting stage.

Liman was one of several helmers on Warners' shortlist as a possible director for the latest Hollywood take on the Alexandre Dumas novel. The list is also known to have included David Frankel, the director of "The Devil Wears Prada."

Warners' "Musketeers," which will likely also be in 3D, is being produced by Lionel Wigram, who initiated the recent "Sherlock Holmes" movie. Peter Straughan, who wrote the recent George Clooney movie "The Men Who Stare at Goats," penned the adaptation of the Dumas novel, which tells the story of a young man named D'Artagnan as he joins forces with three veteran and disgraced French musketeers to stop the villainous Cardinal Richelieu.

CAA-repped Liman has developed a reputation, with films such as "The Bourne Identity" and "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," for going over budget and running messy productions, but at the same time, those movies proved to be great hits. He recently wrapped production on "Fair Game," the true story of Valerie Plame, the CIA agent whose status was leaked to the public by the White House. The film stars Naomi Watts and Sean Penn.

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'Fair Game' Director Doug Liman Circles Coen Brothers-Scripted 'Gambit' Redo
By MIKE FLEMING; Deadline Hollywood

EXCLUSIVE: As Summit Entertainment moves closer to a domestic distribution deal on his Valerie Plame drama Fair Game, director Doug Liman is circling Gambit, a Joel and Ethan Coen-scripted remake of the 1966 British caper comedy which originally starred Michael Caine and Shirley MacLaine. Producer Mike Lobell has been trying to get the project made for years, and Liman is an intriguing choice. Caine played a cat burglar who tries to rob a billionaire of his priceless statue and enlists the help of a waitress who is a dead ringer for the victim's late wife. While the burglar has carefully planned the job in his head, the execution is complicated by his relationship with his pretty accomplice. Liman is circling several projects, including an untitled moon mission project at Paramount with Jake Gyllenhaal and The Three Musketeers. The director's most pressing engagement is Cannes, where Fair Game will premiere in competition next month. Naomi Watts stars as Plame, whose covert CIA status was leaked by the Bush Administration after her husband Joseph Wilson began writing op-ed pieces charging that intelligence on weapons of mass destruction was manipulated to sell the invasion of Iraq. Sean Penn plays Wilson. River Road, Participant Media and Imagenation stepped in to finance the film when Warner Bros dropped out. Summit, which showed it had the mettle to mount an Oscar campaign with Best Picture winner The Hurt Locker, hasn't completely sewn up a deal yet but is a logical distributor: Summit's Patrick Wachsberger is already selling overseas territories on the film. CAA is finalizing the distribution a deal that should be completed by the time Liman boards a plane to France.

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Doug Liman ponders 'All You Need Is Kill'
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Doug Liman's name has bubbled to the top to potentially direct "All You Need Is Kill" at Warner Bros. The development sets up a potential internal war over the helmer's services.

Liman jumped aboard Warners' adaptation of "The Three Musketeers" in early May. That project is pitted against a competing "Musketeers" movie, being distributed by Summit, that's being directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and already shooting for an April 15, 2011, release date.

Warners hoped to get its version going in the fall, but the "Kill" development throws that scenario in doubt.

"Kill," being produced by 3 Arts Entertainment, reportedly has a ticking clock attached to it as part of the original deal the studio made for Dante Harper's spec adaptation of Hiroshi Sakurazaka's graphic novel. That deal closed more than two months ago, which means the film may have to be shooting by next spring.

With that blade hanging above Warners' head, the studio has been meeting with several big directors to tackle the sci-fi action tale in which a new recruit in a war against aliens finds himself caught in a time loop where he wakes up one day in the past after having been killed on the battlefield. Through the training and battles he experiences in these time loops, he becomes a better soldier.

Liman has a meeting later this week with Warners execs to talk about the project. One topic sure to come up is whether to jam in back-to-back shoots.

The CAA-repped Liman most recently directed the Summit drama "Fair Game," which had its world premiere at the Festival de Cannes last month.

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Emily Blunt in Negotiations for Tom Cruise Sci-Fi Pic 'All You Need Is Kill'
The "Five-Year Engagement" actress is in talks to co-star with Tom Cruise in the upcoming thriller directed by Doug Liman.
Source: THR

Emily Blunt is in negotiations to star opposite Tom Cruise in All You Need Is Kill, a sci-fi war film with a twist that is being made by Warner Bros. and director Doug Liman.

The script sees Cruise as a raw recruit who gets killed in action but, in Groundhog Day fashion, is reborn each day to fight, and die, again and again. He begins trying to train himself to be a better soldier in hope of changing his fate.

Blunt would play Valkyrie One, one of humankind's best soldiers.

Erwin Stoff, Tom Lassally and Jason Hoffs are producing. Jon Berg is overseeing for the studio.
Blunt will be demonstrating her versatility with her next two pictures. She first stars opposite Jason Segel in Universal's comedy The Five-Year Engagement, which opens April 27, then in September stars opposite Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the time-travel action thriller Looper.

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Doug Liman in Talks to Direct 'Victory' Remake at Warner Bros. (Exclusive)
Gavin O'Connor is writing the script for the soccer-themed pic that takes place against the backdrop of World War II.
Source: THR

As World Cup mania reaches a fever pitch, a soccer-themed project at Warner Bros. is heating up with Doug Liman at the helm.

The Edge of Tomorrow director is in talks to helm Victory, a remake of a 1981 action film of the same name that is being adapted by Gavin O'Connor.

The story is set during World War II as allied POWs prepare for a soccer match against the German National Team to be played in Nazi-occupied Paris. But amid the preparations, the French Resistance and British officers are making plans for the team's escape.

American studios have traditionally made embraced sports movies about American sports like baseball and football, yet has shied away from soccer films, despite the sport's global appeal. But as international box office has become increasingly important, soccer is becoming more palatable to studio executives. Imagine Entertainment is producing a film on soccer icon Pele. The sport is becoming more popular in the United States as well. A World Cup match this week between U.S.A. and Portugal drew 18.2 million viewers, marking the sport's most-watched event in U.S. history.

But Victory is much more than a sports movie and is steeped in geopolitics — a cross between Monuments Men and the hockey film Miracle, which O'Connor directed.

Bernie Goldmann and Gianni Nunnari are producing. Jon Berg and Racheline Benveniste are overseeing for Warner Bros.

Liman most recently directed the Tom Cruise starrer Edge of Tomorrow for Warners. His helming credits also include Jumper and Mr. & Mrs. Smith.