Paramount’s Slate Revealed: David Chase, Kathryn Bigelow, JJ Abrams And Much More

Don’t expect any real surprises from Paramount Pictures over the next few months as it looks like the lid has been blown on their entire in-development slate. An e-mail absolutely overflowing with project and talent names was scooped by The Wrap.

The studio have officially said that this isn’t an offical list – but who cares about officialdom? Is it correct? It most likely is – or was, at the time it was compiled.

Here are my highlights:

• Kathryn Bigelow has been meeting with Sean Penn, Will Smith, Javier Bardem and Christian Bale about the lead roles in Triple Frontier, her action thriller about drug trafficking at the intersection of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina.
• There’s a middle-school aged heist film called Dunderheads on which the studio are expected to hire a commercials or music video director.
• Dayton and Faris’ existential comedy Will is looking likely to film in the new year. It was set to star Paul Rudd and Zack Galifianakis – no updates on this cast.
• David Chase’s Twilight Zones – note: plural, not the TV show – is casting a series of “unknown” young guys.
• They’re looking for new writers to redraft the next Jack Ryan film – curiously not being called Moscow here – and the next Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles picture.
• JJ Abrams has the idea for a thriller called 7 Minutes in Heaven: two teenagers go into a closet to play the makeout game, when they come back out, all of their friends are dead.
• Cameron Diaz is attached to What Men Want and the studio like the current script draft.
• Etan Cohen will rewrite Daddy’s Home when he’s done with Men in Black 3. Meanwhile, Melissa Stack is rewriting her Blacklist-lauded script I Want To ____ Your Sister in order to relocate the story in college.
• Jamie Linden is working on a remake of Nevada Smith, Henry Hathaway’s Steve McQueen revenge western.
• Gough & Millar, of Smallville fame, are writing something called Existence 2.0. I’m pretty sure it will be an adaptation of Nick Spencer and Ronald Salas’ comic book about a murdered scientist who reawakens in the body of the hitman who killed him.