In the Works: De Palma, Dunham, and More

Carice van Houten, seen above in Paul Verhoeven’s Black Book (2006), “is teaming with fellow Game of Thrones regular Nicolaj Coster-Waldau to star in Domino, the suspense thriller from Brian De Palma penned by Kon-Tiki scribe Petter Skavlan,” reports Deadline’s Patrick Hipes. Coster-Waldau and van Houten, who’s replacing Christina Hendricks, “star as police officers who go rogue while tracking down the killer of their police partner who was murdered in the line of duty. As they cross a Europe shaken by ongoing multiple terror attacks, the pair will discover troubling links between the man they are chasing and a CIA operative on the trail of the ISIS cell behind the attacks.”

“Having wrapped up their acclaimed HBO series Girls, Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner are in talks to write Paramount’s Toni Erdmann remake that’s slated to star Jack Nicholson and Kristen Wiig,” reports Jeff Sneider. Maren Ade’s award-winning original with Peter Simonischek and Sandra Hüller appeared on countless best-of-2016 top ten lists.

Also at the Tracking Board, Emily J reports that Lee Daniels and Empire creator and writer Julian Breece are developing Mason Dixon, which “centers on a black politician’s wife and a blunt-talking good-ole-boy who, in the wake of their spouses’ cheating scandal, form an unlikely alliance that blends their families and shakes up a community divided by race and class.”

“Hugh Jackman will star as Sen. Gary Hart in Jason Reitman’s political drama The Frontrunner,” reports Variety’s Dave McNary. “Hart was the frontrunner during the early stages of the 1988 race for the Democratic presidential nomination when his campaign was rocked by revelations of an extramarital affair with Donna Rice. The Colorado senator then dropped out of the race.”

Josef Bierbichler, known to most as an actor (The White Ribbon) is currently shooting his second feature, Mittelreich, with Martina Gedeck, Irm Hermann, Simon Donatz, Sophie Stockinger, and Sarah Camp, reports Bénédicte Prot at Cineuropa. Based on his own 2011 novel, Mittelreich “covers seventy years of history: from the First World War up until the end of the last century, it focuses on the life of a small rural Bavarian community, looking at the technological and social changes it is faced with and must adapt to.”

“How will Matt Reeves’s upcoming The Batman differ from earlier versions of the Dark Knight that have reached the big screen? A new interview suggests that the War for the Planet of the Apes director wants to make something that gets audiences inside Bruce Wayne's head.” Graeme McMillan has more in the Hollywood Reporter.

Guillermo del Toro really, really wants you to see Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver. He’s tweeted a thread of effusive praise: “This is An American in Paris on wheels and crack smoke.” Now its star, Ansel Elgort, “has been set to play young president John F. Kennedy Jr in Mayday 109, the true story of the future American president’s feats of heroism as a Navy captain during WWII,” reports Deadline’s Mike Fleming Jr.

Also, screenwriters David S. Goyer (Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy) and Josh Friedman (Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds) are teaming up with Skydance to turn Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy “into a sprawling TV series.”

Melanie Lynskey “has been tapped as the female lead opposite André Holland in Hulu’s upcoming psychological-horror drama series Castle Rock from J.J. Abrams and Stephen King,” reports Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva. “Set in the Stephen King multiverse,” the series “is named after the fictional town in King’s native Maine that is featured prominently in a number of his novels, novellas and short stories.”

And from Andreeva and Denise Petski: “Netflix continues to tap into 1990s nostalgia with a ten-episode series order to Everything Sucks!, a half-hour dramedy from writers Ben York Jones (Like Crazy) and Michael Mohan (Save the Date).”

“Netflix is developing a new installment of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City,” reports Variety’s Cynthia Littleton. “Laura Linney and Olympia Dukakis are on board to revive the characters they played in Showtime and PBS adaptations of the landmark LGBT-themed novel series in the 1990s. Michael Cunningham (The Hours) has penned the first script for what is envisioned as a 10-part installment, although the project does not yet have a series order from Netflix.”

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