Sony has been busy making moves with upcoming productions today. Earlier today, it was revealed that the studio was eyeing Reese Witherspoon to play the President of the United States in their comedy First Man. Adam Sandler would be playing the title role, with plenty of fart and dick jokes to boot, I’m sure.
While that would have been enough news to cycle around for one day, it has been learned via Tracking Board that the studio has narrowed its list of writers for their supernatural historical figure movie Dishonourables. The project was previously known as Royal Honour Society with the studio hoping to launch it as a new franchise.
So what is this movie about? Hold on to your bifocals folks.
Described as a cross between Sherlock Holmes and X-Men, the film centers on a young Winston Churchill who is tasked with forming a secret society of the most brilliant minds of his era and fight the supernatural forces of an evil Rasputin. The group consists of H.G Wells, Robert Louis Steveson, Mary Shelley, Jules Verne, Rudyard Kipling and Bram Stoker. The group’s adventures would later be fictionalized into each writer’s most acclaimed novels.
Here’s who Sony has narrowed their list down to:
Drew Pearce: One of the most in-demand screenwriters working in Hollywood right now. At the moment, Pearce only has one script under his belt, but then, that film is the billion-dollar-plus grossing Iron Man 3. He’s currently writing Mission Impossible 5 for Paramount and Sherlock Holmes 3 for Warner Bros. Pearce also did some uncredited work on the upcoming Godzilla movie.
James Vanderbilt: Has a decade long relationship with Sony, with Zodiac, The Amazing Spider-Man and White House Down to his credit. He’s currently scripting the two part Independence Day sequel for the studio and also penned the sequel for Amazing Spider-Man.
Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec: The duo of TV writers have scripted everything from Alias to Life on Mars and Fast Lane. They wrote Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and took a pass at 21 Jump Street and Now You See Me. The duo currently has a number of high profile projects on their slate including the Beverly Hills Cop reboot, a Dirty Dozen remake and the upcoming Ninja Turtles movie.
Oren Uziel: Speaking of hot writers, here’s another guy who is quickly on the rise. Uziel has a number of big projects headed to theaters soon inclulding 22 Jump Street, Men in Black 4, The Kitchen Sink and Inherit the Earth. He also has The God Particle in development at Paramount and Overnight set up at Disney. Additionally, he is in the midst of scripting a Mortal Kombat reboot.
Travis Beacham: After scripting back to back fantasy blockbusters, Beacham is currently on board to write a sequel to Pacific Rim. In addition to writing the first movie, he also wrote Clash of the Titans as well as Dog Days of Summer and is one of the writers on the upcoming TV series Hieroglyph.
So who among those names look most promising? I can tell you that for my money, I would go with the duo of Applebaum and Nemec. They injected life in a waning Mission Impossible franchise and with the direction of Chris Miller and Phil Lord, brought credence and unexpected fun to the 21 Jump Street movie. My backup would be Vanderbilt, though his recent string of films have been more sizzle than substance. That being said, that could be exactly what Sony is looking for in launching this franchise.
Cinemaniax 