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Universal Hires 'Hunger Games' Writer Billy Ray To Pen Competing Script For 'The Mummy' Reboot

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • February 14, 2013 4:46 PM
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  • 2 Comments
News
Oh, what a rollercoaster you're taking us on Universal! Last spring, with "Prometheus" still buzzing on everyone's minds, the studio snapped up that film's original writer Jon Spaihts to pen their reboot of "The Mummy." Okay, if it's gonna happen, he's a decent enough choice. And then in September, they bizarrely announced that Len Wiseman, coming off the stink of "Total Recall," was going to direct. Far from our first choice, but we get it, he can do effects stuff in his sleep. But now it seems like they're still not sure what they want to do.
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More: The Mummy, Billy Ray

Billy Ray The Latest Writer To Tackle Martin Scorsese's Developing 'Sinatra'

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • August 13, 2012 5:06 PM
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  • 2 Comments
News
Even as he gears up "The Wolf of Wall Street," the ever-busy Martin Scorese is keeping the fires burning on a handful of projects, including his long-developing biopic "Sinatra." In the spring of 2011, powerhouse producer Scott Rudin ("The Social Network," "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo") decided to throw his weight behind the endeavor, with plans to find a new writer to draft a script after Phil Alden Robinson's (”Field of Dreams,” “Sneakers”) take got the ball rolling. And back in April, Scorsese revealed he was taking some meetings, and now it seems he's found his man.
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More: Billy Ray, Martin Scorsese, Sinatra

Tony Scott No Longer Involved In '24' Movie, Production Aiming To Begin In First Half Of 2012

  • By Drew Taylor
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  • December 5, 2011 6:16 PM
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  • 1 Comment
News
It's been a fairly wild ride for 20th Century Fox and Brian Grazer's big screen version of the popular television series "24," which starred Kiefer Sutherland as a tough-as-nails counter-terrorist secret agent with a penchant for torturing people. After shooting down "Breach" screenwriter Billy Ray's script almost a year ago (something we still can't figure out), all parties remained optimistic, with both Sutherland and Grazer pegging 2012 as the year when the eventual film would shoot. Somehow, the perceived development hell that the film was mired in didn't get to any of the principles. And, as it turns out, they were right. Deadline is reporting that Sutherland, Fox, and Grazer are all pulling the "24" movie together, to shoot as early as this spring.
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More: Billy Ray, Brian Grazer, Kiefer Sutherland, 24: Live Another Day

Johnny Depp To Produce & Possibly Star In Biopic About Dr. Seuss (aka Theodor Geisel)

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • October 7, 2011 3:58 AM
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  • 2 Comments
Billy Ray Is Now The Third Writer Hired For 'The Thin Man'Well, why not? With a penchant for playing writers on film, Johnny Depp has already portrayed Hunter S. Thompson, J.M. Barrie and John Wilmot on the big screen (and played a novelist in "Secret Window"), and it looks like he may be adding another famous figure to list.
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More: Actors, Films, Billy Ray, The Thin Man

J.J. Abrams & Billy Ray Sell Mystery Adventure Pitch To Paramount

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • October 4, 2011 2:42 AM
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  • 0 Comments
While pundits wondered if J.J. Abrams could really keep the monster and mystery at the core of "Super 8" under lock and key until it hit theaters, and still draw a mainstream audience to a film with no name stars that was largely sold on the Steven Spielberg association, the proof was in the pudding. Earning over $250 million worldwide, Abrams proved that not all summer blockbusters need to be preceded by endless clips and posters, and moreover, moviegoers are willing to go into a movie a little bit blind if the payoff is worth their time and money.
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More: Film Studios, Billy Ray, Paramount

Sony Picks Up Channing Tatum's Horrible-Sounding Peter Pan Prequel

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • March 8, 2011 2:53 AM
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  • 2 Comments
If you'll beg our indulgence for a second, we've got a pitch that we want to put out there, one that we think is our ticket out of this film blogging racket. It's called "Rick," and it's a prequel to the all-time-classic "Casablanca." See, Rick Blaine, as played by Humphrey Bogart, is one of the all time great screen heroes, but you don't really get that much of his backstory. When told that he came to Casablanca "for the waters," a baffled Captain Renault asks "The waters? What waters? We're in the desert." To which Rick replies, in one of the all-time-greatest pieces of screenwriting, "I was misinformed."
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More: Films, Actors, Film Studios, Billy Ray, Genre Films, Channing Tatum, Peter Pan Begins, Sony

Channing Tatum & Billy Ray Team For 'Peter Pan Begins'

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • March 2, 2011 12:26 AM
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  • 4 Comments
Have you been itching for an origin story about Peter Pan? No? Well here comes one anyway.
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More: Films, Actors, Billy Ray, Genre Films, Channing Tatum, Peter Pan Begins

Despite Kiefer Sutherland's Claims, A '24' Movie Is Not Shooting In The Next Eight Months

  • By Gabe Toro
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  • January 22, 2011 2:39 AM
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  • 0 Comments
Sometimes Hollywood is like a magical genie: if you talk about a project enough times, it will get a greenlight, simply because people interpret "talking about" to be "buzz" and "anticipation" which, somewhere down the line, is supposed to equal dollars. So this sudden chatter regarding a "24" movie might be doing the TV adaptation a favor, as it recently hit a roadblock with Fox rejecting a script from "Flightplan" and "Breach" scribe Billy Ray.
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More: Actors, Film Studios, Billy Ray, Kiefer Sutherland, 20th Century Fox, Twenty Four

20th Century Fox Turns Down Billy Ray's Script For The Movie Of '24'

  • By Gabe Toro
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  • January 1, 2011 5:31 AM
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  • 3 Comments
'My Name Is Jack Bauer, And I Am In Development Hell'Bad news for those hoping for the further adventures of Kiefer Sutherland's rogue CTU agent Jack Bauer: apparently Fox has rejected a script from high-profile scribe Billy Ray ("Shattered Glass," "Salt") for a feature film continuing the adventures of the lead character of "24," the hit series that ran for eight years and successfully tapped into that raw post-9/11 paranoia during the Bush years. The intention all along was to push the show into the cinematic world, but so-so ratings for the final season, coupled with likely budgetary concerns (the series might as well have been called "Shooting Down Exploding Helicopters") have put the kibosh on big screen plans.
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More: Actors, Film Studios, Billy Ray, Kiefer Sutherland, 20th Century Fox, Twenty Four

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