The Producers Guild of America holds its second annual "Produced By" Conference this coming weekend at 20th Century Fox Studios. At the same time, PGA president Marshall Herskovitz’s tenure is coming to a close this month. (Mark Gordon and Hawk Koch are running unopposed as co-Presidents.)
Herskovitz talks to Deadline freelancer Diane Haithman about the PGA’s new “Transmedia Producer” credit; a new Producers Wiki website to be unveiled at the conference; plans for a PGA feature film competition in 2011; and the reality of today's Hollywood producer.
Deadline:
Paramount and Skydance are in negotiations with The Last Samurai team of Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz to rewrite Richard Wenk’s script for Jack Reacher 2, the follow-up to the 2012 Tom Cruise-starrer that made $218.3M worldwide and $80M-plus domestic. Christopher McQuarrie wrote and directed the original, based on the Lee Child novel series. The plan is to have Zwick direct the sequel, and Cruise is already poised to return for a second go-round.
Wenk (The Equalizer) wrote the original draft, which Zwick and Herskovitz will take on next. In addition to working with Cruise on 2003’s Last Samurai, the pair wrote the Jake Gyllenhaal-Anne Hathaway romantic drama Love And Other Drugs. Zwick last directed Pawn Sacrifice, the upcoming pic that stars Tobey Maguire as chess legend Bobby Fischer and Liev Schreiber as his arch-rival Boris Spassky.
Don't know if I laid awake tossing and turning in the night crying out for a Jack Reacher sequel, but okay, I'll bite. As long as they get a bigger Jack Reacher than Tom Cruise.
I really enjoyed the first one and I won't mind Cruise playing the character again.
Collider:
It looks like CBS Films has found their terrorist hunter in Chris Hemsworth (Thor) for American Assassin. Hemsworth would be playing Mitch Rapp, a college scholar and athlete who becomes a relentless anti-terrorism agent for the CIA as a result of a personal tragedy. The adaptation is actually from Vince Flynn’s 11th novel in his best-selling series, but since it’s a prequel, it acts as a good jumping off point for a potential movie franchise. Other talent involved with the picture is director Jeffrey Nachmanoff (Traitor, Homeland), writers Ed Zwick (Defiance) and Marshall Herskovitz (The Last Samurai), and producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Nick Wechsler. Oh and did I forget to mention that Bruce Willis is circling a role as a CIA mentor of sorts? Hit the jump for more.
The Playlist:
You see that face up there? Get used to it. With "Man Of Steel" hitting in just over a year, the marketing ramp-up/onslaught is just around the corner and Henry Cavill's face and name will soon become recognizable even to your Mom. And Legendary Entertainment, who are co-producers on the superhero pic, are eager to keep Cavill under their roof.
The company's Legendary East shingle have snagged Cavill to star in Ed Zwick's developing "The Great Wall." First announced over the summer, details are thin on the project but Zwick will co-write the script with his partner Marshall Herskovitz. The story, dreamed up by Legendary honcho Thomas Tull and "World War Z" author Max Brooks, centers around the mystery behind the construction of China's greatest landmark and one of the largest wonders of the world.
He is really getting a lot of roles now. I'm sure his career is going to be a very long one. He's very handsome and very talented. It also doesn't hurt to just be a nice person as well...I think people can see thru that.
