Mike Nichols

[MacGuffin]

Fox sets Mike Nichols for 'Deep Water'
Helmer to adapt Patricia Highsmith novel
Source: Variety

Fox 2000 has set Mike Nichols to direct and Joe Penhall to write "Deep Water," an adaptation of the 1957 Patricia Highsmith novel.

Penhall most recently adapted the Cormac McCarthy novel "The Road." John Hillcoat directed the film, which stars Viggo Mortensen and Charlize Theron.

"Deep Water" will be a co-production of Film Rites and Film 360, the film production division of Management 360. Steve Zaillian, Nichols and Ben Forkner will produce.

Guymon Casady and Garrett Basch are executive producers.

Highsmith wrote the thrillers "Strangers on a Train" and "The Talented Mr. Ripley." In "Deep Water," a couple in a loveless marriage hang on through an arrangement whereby the husband permits the wife to take lovers. Suspense builds as those lovers begin dying.

In landing Nichols, Fox 2000's Elizabeth Gabler and Carla Hacken continue their momentum of attracting top-tier filmmakers to their projects. The duo also developed the Jonathan Tropper script for "Harvey," to which Steven Spielberg committed as his next film, a co-production between Fox and DreamWorks (Daily Variety, Aug. 3).

[MacGuffin]

Mike Nichols in Talks to Direct 'One Last Thing Before I Go' for Bad Robot, Paramount
Source: TheWrap

Mike Nichols is in talks to direct "One Last Thing Before I Go" for J.J. Abrams and Paramount, according to multiple individuals with knowledge of the project.

The film would be Nichols' first since "Charlie Wilson's War," which opened in 2007 and is one of two films the director of "The Graduate" and "The Birdcage" has made over the past decade.

Nichols has alternated between film and theater, directing a revival of "Death of a Salesman" last year. He is currently directing Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz in "Betrayal," and has discussed this new project with Craig as well.

No deal has been made for Nichols, but Abrams' Bad Robot production company is serious enough about the project that it has also begun reaching out to actors.

Abrams is producing the film through Bad Robot, which has a deal with Paramount. The adult drama, based on Jonathan Tropper's sixth novel, would be an outlier at a studio focused on big-budget action franchises ("Transformers") and microbudget horror films and comedies ("Paranormal Activity").

The story chronicles Drew Silver, a lovable, neer-do-well divorcee who discovers he needs emergency heart surgery. Silver opts against the procedure, and tries to use his remaining time on earth to better his relationshisp with hsi family. His wife, Denise, is about to be remarried while his teenage daughter, Casey, is pregnant.

[wilder]

TCA: HBO Reveals Details Of Mike Nichols/Meryl Streep 'Master Class'
via Deadline

HBO parsed out some details on Mike Nichols directing of Meryl Streep in the network's adaptation of Master Class, Terrence McNally's Tony Award-winning play about Maria Callas. The project is a reteaming of Nichols and Streep, who worked together on the premium channel's Angels In America nearly a decade ago. Master Class begins production in early '15, depicting the master classes the operatic great gave to hand-picked students at the Juilliard School in the early 1970s.