History Of Chicago Crime Syndicate Optiomed For Movie Script

Nascent banner Romano Shane Prods., formed by Anthony Romano and Michel Shane, has optioned Gus Russo's "The Outfit: The Role of Chicago's Underworld in the Shaping of Modern America."

The book, published by Bloomsbury Press last month, provides an in-depth history of the Chicago crime syndicate. The never-before-told story of the great Chicago crime family called The Outfit.  It is a common misperception that all the true-life organized crime stories have been written. Yet perhaps the most compelling gangster tale is one that has been, until now, too well-hidden.

This is the story of the Outfit: the secretive organized crime cartel that began its reign in prohibition-era Chicago before becoming the real puppet master of Hollywood, Las Vegas, and Washington D.C.

The Outfit recounts the adventures and exploits of its bosses, Tony 'Joe Batters' Accardo (the real Godfather), Murray 'The Camel' or 'Curly' Humphreys (one of the greatest political fixers and union organizers this country has ever known), Paul 'The Waiter' Ricca, and Johnny Rosselli (the liaison between the shadowy world and the outside world). Their invisibility was their strength, and what kept their leader from ever spending a single night in jail. The Outfit bosses were the epitome of style and grace, moving effortlessly among national political figures and Hollywood studio heads-until their world started to crumble in the 1970s.

With extensive research including recently released FBI files, the Chicago Crime files of entertainer Steve Allen, first-ever access to the voluminous working papers of the Kefauver Committee, original interviews with the members of the Fourth Estate who pursued the Outfit for forty years, and exclusive access to the journals of Humphrey's widow, veteran journalist Gus Russo uncovers sixty years of corruption and influence, and examines the shadow history of the United States.

About the Author: Gus Russo is the author of Live By the Sword: The Secret War Against Castro and the Death of JFK. He is an investigative reporter who has worked for various major television networks, including PBS' Frontline series.

In addition to more prosaic mob activities, the Outfit is credited with starting off-track betting and top 40 charts and, in its declining years, the Outfit's "fixer," Sidney Korshak, even vetted the cast of "The Godfather."

Harrison Ford, A Walk Among the Tombstones

Harrison Ford and "Narc" director Joe Carnahan will take "A Walk Among the Tombstones," as both negotiate to join the Universal crime saga.

Ford will play Matthew Scudder, a cop-turned-private eye who is hired by a Brooklyn drug dealer to find the men who kidnapped and butchered his wife. Filming is due to start in January.

Scudder is the protagonist in a series of Lawrence Block novels, one of which, "8 Million Ways to Die," was previously turned into a film.

Scott Frank, who previously did acclaimed screen adaptations of Elmore Leonard's novels "Get Shorty" and "Out of Sight," turned in a draft of "Tombstones" that caught the eye of Ford. The actor, who will next be seen on July 19 in Paramount's "K-19: The Widowmaker," sparked to the script and seemed ready to star if the right director emerged.

Both the actor and the studio responded strongly to Carnahan and "Narc," the gritty Ray Liotta-Jason Patric drama that bowed at Sundance. Paramount and Lions Gate jointly picked up the film for distribution later this year.

"Narc" is about a suspended undercover narcotics officer (Patric), who tries to solve a cop's murder with the slain officer's revenge-minded partner (Liotta).

Ford now has filled his dance card for the year. He previously committed to star in an untitled Sony crime drama for writer/director Ron Shelton, likely co-starring Josh Hartnett.

Also in the wings are plans to reprise his Indiana Jones role in a fourth installment of the franchise. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have hatched a story and are working out a deal with Paramount while they look for a writer. Tom Stoppard was courted but now seems unlikely to take the job, as he's engaged on other projects.

Charlie Chan Remake For Lucy Liu

Lucy Liu is in talks to take on a different kind of "Charlie" role, as the title character in a modern-day version of the classic detective franchise "Charlie Chan" for 20th Century Fox.

Liu will executive produce and star in the film, a hip reinvention of the legendary franchise, as the similarly named granddaughter of the famed supersleuth. "Chan" will be produced by John Woo and Terence Chang's Lion Rock Prods. and will be overseen for the studio by Hutch Parker.

Fox distributed the original "Chan" films, which were based on a series of novels by Earl Derr Biggers centering on the Chinese-American detective. Nearly a dozen "Chan" films were released during the 1930s and '40s, with such actors as Warner Oland and Sidney Toler taking the lead role.

For Liu, "Chan" is the latest addition to an already busy schedule. The actress will next be seen in September opposite Antonio Banderas in Warner Bros./Franchise Pictures' action-thriller "Ecks vs. Sever." She has also completed work opposite Jeremy Northam in the feature "Cypher" and makes a cameo appearance in Miramax Films' all-star movie musical "Chicago." Liu is scheduled to shoot Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" this spring before reuniting with Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore for "Charlie's Angels 2" in the summer.

On the producing side, Liu has completed a deal with Universal Pictures to produce an untitled action-comedy with Jersey Films. Liu is repped by ICM, Framework Entertainment and attorney Alan Wertheimer.

'Toad Trip' Worth A $750,000 Advance

DreamWorks Pictures has landed the spec script "Toad Trip" for a $750,000 advance. The human-turned-into-toad script comes from scribes Paul Tamasay ("Air Bud") and Eric Johnson. While the studio is mum on details of the project, it will combine live action and CGI effects, similar to Sony's "Stuart Little."

It will be produced by DreamWorks-based producer John H. Williams, whose recent credits include DreamWorks all-CGI hit "Shrek" and the recently wrapped Jackie Chan action-comedy "The Tuxedo," also for DreamWorks.

'The Company' For director Robert Altman with Neve Campbell

"Gosford Park" director Robert Altman is in talks to take the helm of "The Company" -- a large ensemble project about ballet dancers -- with Neve Campbell attached to produce and co-star.

Campbell will play a young dancer who has other interests, distracting her from the dedication the craft requires. The project has roles for 50 people.

Best known for her turns in TV's "Party of Five" and the "Scream" feature trilogy, Campbell became involved with the new project after bringing ("Pollock") scribe Barbara Turner's script to the attention of indie producer Killer Films, which is eying a summer start date.

Altman is in Cannes to help Killer close financing for the picture, and he also will meet with financiers for other potential projects. He remains attached to films "Voltage" and "Unfinished Life." Killer's recent films include John Cameron Mitchell's "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" and Todd Solondz's "Storytelling."

Helen Mirren and Julie Walters inks for "Calendar Girls"

Helen Mirren and Julie Walters will display their charms in Nigel Cole's "Calendar Girls," based on the true story of 12 Yorkshire matrons who posed naked for a calendar to raise money for charity.

The Disney-backed picture, which starts shooting June 24, will be Cole's first picture since the niche 1999 hit "Saving Grace."

The "Calendar Girls" script, by Juliette Towhidi and Cole, is based on the story of the Women's Institute members in a small Yorkshire village who decided to do something different for their annual calendar.

They were photographed doing all the things club women are traditionally supposed to do -- making jam, baking bread, flower arranging -- but in the buff. The calendar became a media sensation and national bestseller.

They were inspired to disrobe in order to raise money for medical research after the husband of one woman was diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Cannes 2002 Market Data May 15, 2002

Cannes 2002; Lolafilms Is Back To Buying Foreign Pictures For Spain.

Over the past year, its Spanish theatrical distribution operation has focused on releasing Lola's own English- and Spanish-language productions. But now, "They'll be along the lines of the films we produce: commercial films of quality which can be put out on 100 to 150 (prints)," Gomez added. Lola will be looking for five to six films a year to complement our production lineup," said Lola CEO Andres Vicente Gomez.

The move back into distribution comes as British novelist and TV presenter Melvyn Bragg has completed a screenplay for Lolafilms' long-mooted period romancer "The Maid of Buttermere." Set in Britain's Lake District in the early 19th century, the film charts the love affair between a local girl and a man who is taken for a rogue and bounder. Director and Cannes jury member Bille August is attached to direct.

Bragg wrote the novel on which the film is based. Although more famous as a writer or TV interviewer, Bragg has scripted both TV series, such as "A Time to Dance," and feature films such as "Jesus Christ Superstar."

Intermedia

Intermedia will handle international distribution of "Nailed Right In," a coming-of-age drama to be directed by Griffin Dunne, with Hayden Christensen and Leelee Sobieski attached to star.

Based on screenwriter Terence Winter's ("The Sopranos") own experiences, "Nailed Right In" is set in Brooklyn against the backdrop of John Gotti's rise to power in the mob. The story revolves around a group of Catholic youths and lifelong friends whose different ambitions threaten to shake their friendship.

Platinum Dunes

Tobe Hooper, director of the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," will direct the indie dark comedy "Planning Lawrence Fankhauser's Death," a farcical take on career criminals attempting to move up the food chain.

Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes banner and Radar Pictures are currently remaking Hooper's "Texas Chainsaw," which screened in the Directors Fortnight at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival and is part of the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection.

Cobalt Media Group

Cobalt Media Group are in advanced talks to take over selected international rights on Paramount Pictures and Mutual Film Co's $100m-plus "Timeline," one of the biggest-budget productions being circulated at Cannes. "Timeline," which Richard Donner is shooting in Canada for release next year.

The actioner stars Frances O'Connor, Paul Walker and Gerard Butler. Pic, an adaptation of Michael Crichton's novel of the same name with a screenplay penned by George Molfi, revolves around a group of graduate students who travel to 14th-century France on a mission to rescue their history professor, who is trapped there. Donner produces with Lauren Shuler Donner.

The deal is thought to include some of the territories where Mutual usually puts its films through its consortium of international distribution partners such as Telemunchen in Germany and Toho-Towa in Japan. Mutual is bringing Cobalt into the film as a means of sharing the high cost of co-financing the film.

HBO

HBO will use the Cannes Film Festival to unveil its beefed-up strategy for selling some of its product theatrically overseas.

The cable channel's HBO Films division is readying a slate of pictures to be sold internationally. These include "Angels in America" from director Mike Nichols; the next film from "Monsoon Wedding" director Mira Nair, "Hysterical Blindness," starring Uma Thurman and Juliette Lewis; and the Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Keaton starrer "Live From Baghdad," based on CNN producer Robert Wiener's memoir of the same name with Mick Jackson to direct.

 HBO has high international theatrical hopes for Nichols' upcoming three-hour movie versions of Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, "Angels in America." Budgeted in the $50 million range, it is currently being shot in New York, and is the division's biggest-budgeted production ever.

However, HBO Films president Colin Callender said the new overseas strategy is not meant for every HBO movie. Certain titles that are clearly U.S.-centric will not necessarily appeal to the international marketplace, nor are meant to have a theatrical life.

New Line Cinema

 New Line, which has its first ever film in competition with Alexander Payne's "About Schmidt", will be at the market in force under worldwide distribution and marketing chief Rolf Mittweg and New Line International (NLI) president Cam Galano.

NLI will continue sales on its rat remake "Willard" and "Final Destination 2" and will also be talking up upcoming pictures like woman in jeopardy thriller "Westward". Hot on the heels of "The Lord of The Rings: Fellowship of the Ring", New Line will also be handing out scripts to the first film in another epic fantasy trilogy based on the "His Dark Material" books by Philip Pullman.

Fine Line production "Ripley's Game" starring John Malkovich and Dougray Scott will be screened, while the company is looking to close a renewal of its longterm deal with Entertainment Film Distributors in the UK as well as completing deals in other territories.

New Line Cinema is introducing four new pictures to buyers at Cannes:

"Secondhand Lions" is about a timid ten year-old (Haley Joel Osment) who is passed off one summer on to his two mysterious great uncles. Robert Duvall is in talks to co-star in the film written and directed by Tim McCanlies.

"Dumb And Dumber: The Early Years" was written by Brian Hart (TV's Mad-TV) and follows Lloyd and Harry when they meet each other on the last day of highschool.

"Freddy Vs Jason" teams up the two villains as they battle it out. Ronny Yu (Bride Of Chucky, The 51st State) directs with Robert Englund and Kane Hodder in the title roles.

"Highwaymen" is an action thriller about a man whose flesh and bones are held together by braces and pins who murders women in a 72 El Dorado car. The film is directed by Robert Harmon.

New Line also has a 50% stake in Paul Thomas Anderson's competition entry "Punch-Drunk Love". The film was produced by Joe Roth's Revolution Studios.

Orange Worldwide Film Sales

New Dutch sales outfit, Orange Worldwide Film Sales is to get its international launch this week at Cannes. Headed by Michael Berkel and Peter van Vogelpoel, Orange arrives on the Croisette with four films on its slate.

"Britney Baby One More Time", a Ludi Boeken-directed comedy about a struggling film-maker’s surprise encounter with a male transvestite.
"Pleasant Days", a Kornel Mundruczo-directed portrait of troubled Hungarian youngsters,
"Margarita Happy Hour" Ilya Chaiken’s Sundance 2001 comic drama
"Ticket To Jerusalem", Rashid Masharawi’s the tale of a mobile cinema operator operating on the West Bank.

Berkel is former head of the Netherlands Film Festival in Utrecht and now owns Comart Films, a distribution and exhibition company in South Africa. Van Vogelpoel is president of Amsterdam-based indies Argus Film Production and Upstream Pictures Distribution.