Joe Carnahan

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Universal buys 'Remarkable' pitch
Carnahan to direct Bateman in revenge film
Source: Variety

Universal Pictures has acquired "The Remarkable Fellows," a pitch for an action buddy comedy that Joe Carnahan will write to direct. Jason Bateman, who hatched the film's premise, will produce with Carnahan and Richard Gladstein.

Bateman, who was part of the manic ensemble of Carnahan's last film, "Smokin' Aces," cooked up an outline with the writer-director and then hooked the studio.

Carnahan is writing the script before he begins pre-production on "White Jazz," the adaptation of the James Ellroy book that was scripted by Matthew Michael Carnahan and will star George Clooney.

"The Remarkable Fellows" revolves around two brothers who take over the family business, which involves exacting revenge for clients.

Bateman will play one of the brothers. The duo, who are "part James Bond and part Ricky Jay," get assignments "from their father and carry them out all over the world," Bateman said. "The revenge scenario is dependent on the intricacy of the plot. If the president of a major bank was sleeping with the French ambassador's wife, the banker would call these guys."

Bateman is about to start the Peter Berg-directed "Tonight, He Comes" alongside Will Smith and Charlize Theron. He'll next be seen starring in the Berg-directed "The Kingdom," which Universal releases Sept. 28, and then stars with Natalie Portman in the Zach Helm-directed "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium," which Mandate and Fox Walden release Nov. 16.

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Yari fast-tracking Escobar biopic
Javier Bardem, Christian Bale to star in 'Pablo'
Source: Variety

The Yari Film Group is fast-tracking "Killing Pablo," the long-gestating biopic about the late Pablo Escobar, with Javier Bardem and Christian Bale toplining.

Project, based on Mark Bowden's tome "Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw," has been in development for nearly five years.

Joe Carnahan ("Narc," "Smokin' Aces") remains attached to direct, with Bob Yari, Mark Gordon and Jason Zelin producing.

Bardem is slated to play Escobar, while Bale is in talks to play Major Steve Jacoby, the Delta Force commander who led the hunt for Escobar.

Escobar's rise as a leader of the drug cartel in Medellin, Colombia, began in the 1970s. After years of terrorizing police and political leaders, Escobar was targeted in 1992 by a coalition of Colombian police and military, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and the CIA; he was killed the following year.

Reflecting his notoriety, Escobar served as the basis for the drug kingpin in Tom Clancy's "Clear and Present Danger"; the airport in the videogame "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" is named after him; and a story arc about a fictional biopic of the druglord -- "Medellin" -- has run through multiple seasons of HBO's "Entourage."

"Killing Pablo" was originally set up with Paramount and DreamWorks co-financing and Yari and Gordon producing via their Stratus Films banner.

"This has been a passion project of mine for years, and it will be a tentpole for our company," said Yari. "I have been patient to get this done because I wanted the ideal director and cast. It was worth the wait."

Yari told Daily Variety that "Killing Pablo" could begin shooting as early as next June if the Screen Actors Guild (which has a June 30 expiration on its current contract) has reached a deal for a new contract at that point. If a strike's imminent, production will wait until after the work stoppage.

Bowden's previously done the adaptations for "Black Hawk Down" and "Money for Nothing" and a TV documentary based on his book "Guests of the Ayatollah."

Yari Film Group is about to go into production with "Nothing but the Truth," a drama written and directed by Rod Lurie and starring Kate Beckinsale, Matt Dillon, Alan Alda and Vera Farmiga, as well as "The Lonely Maiden," a comedy directed by Peter Hewitt and written by Mike LeSieur. Morgan Freeman, Christopher Walken and William H. Macy star in the latter.

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Liam Neeson, "A-Team" director reteam for drama

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Liam Neeson is in negotiations to reteam with his "A-Team" director Joe Carnahan for the survival drama "The Grey."

Neeson steps into the shoes of Bradley Cooper, who was slated to star in the project when it was unveiled earlier this year at the Berlin Film Festival.

Co-written by Carnahan and Ian Jeffers, the story begins after a plane goes down in Alaska, with a man (Neeson) and his oil drilling team find themselves struggling to survive in the wild. The men come under attack from vicious wolves.

Neeson catapulted into the ranks of action-thriller leads after the surprise worldwide success of the 2009 kidnap thriller "Taken."

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Carnahan to write, direct 'Umbra'
Lieberman, Stern, Hansen set to produce thriller
Source: Variety

Joe Carnahan ("The A-Team") has been tapped to write and direct the thriller "Umbra" for Endgame Entertainment.

Hal Lieberman and Endgame's James D. Stern and Doug Hansen are producing.

"Umbra," based on Steven Karczynski's screenplay, centers on a businessman who finds a mysterious package in his mailbox and is thrust into the middle of a government conspiracy.

"Umbra" had been set previously at Relativity Media with Lieberman producing and Roger Donaldson attached to direct (Daily Variety, May 26, 2009).

Carnahan's credits include "Smokin' Aces" and "Narc." He's in pre-production on "The Grey."

"Joe is a master storyteller of action films, and we are thrilled to have him onboard this project and excited by his vision for this potential franchise," Stern said.

Endgame's in post-production on Donaldson's thriller "The Hungry Rabbit Jumps" and in pre-production on Rian Johnson's sci-fier "Looper." Lieberman recently wrapped on "The House at the End of the Street."

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'The Grey' Director Joe Carnahan to Remake 'Death Wish'
The helmer of box-office champ The Grey is gearing up to remake Charles Bronson's 1974 vigilante star vehicle.
Source: THR

Filmmaker Joe Carnahan is set to write and direct a remake of Death Wish, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. Carnahan, director of this weekend's box office champion, The Grey, has lined up the remake as his next project, pushing back a handful of pet projects the director has been working on.

During recent interviews, Carnahan indicated that he wanted to make his long-gestating project Killing Pablo as a follow-up to The Grey, and revealed that he was working on a project for Fox entitled Continue, which he described as "Groundhog Day as an action movie." But given Carnahan's proclivity for intense depictions of masculinity, as demonstrated in Narc, Smokin' Aces, The A-Team, and now The Grey, Death Wish's revenge story seems like a natural fit.

Based on Brian Garfield's novel of the same name, the original Death Wish was released in 1974, and was directed by Michael Winner. Although it was panned by critics for advocating vigilantism, the film went on to be a huge commercial success, spawning four sequels and making Charles Bronson a star. While in 2007 director James Wan mounted a loose adaptation of Death Sentence, Garfield's follow-up to his original novel, other efforts to update the story were unsuccessful. Sylvester Stallone also attempted to launch a remake several years ago but the project stalled during development.

There's no word yet whether Carnahan might enlist A-Team and The Grey star Liam Neeson as his vengeance-seeking architect, Paul Kersey. But given Neeson's recent success as an action star, the filmmaker could do worse than to reunite with the actor a third time.