Filming will begin next month in Georgia on the West Memphis Three biopic based on Mara Leveritt's 2002 book about the brutal murders of three young boys back in 1993. Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth are confirmed to star in Devil's Knot which just obtained financial backing from Worldview Entertainment. Atom Egoyan is directing from a screenplay by Paul Harris Boardman and Scott Derrickson. Elizabeth Fowler, Clark Peterson, Richard Saperstein and Worldview CEO Christopher Woodrow are on board as producers.
The 1994 trials of the three then-teenagers - Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Miskelly Jr. - accused of the savage killings caught the attention of documentary filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, and their Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills aired on HBO in 1996 detailing the crimes and the trials. That documentary was followed by Paradise Lost 2: Revelations (2000) and, ultimately, the Oscar-nominated Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory premiered in 2011 ending with the release of the three wrongly accused men who had spent 18 years in prison for crimes they didn't commit. The documentaries are credited with bringing attention to the case and helping to get the three released from prison in August 2011.
Devil's Knot will be executive produced by two of the three defendants, Jessie Misskelley Jr and Jason Baldwin.
Commenting on their support of the film, Worldview CEO Woodrow stated: "Worldview is excited to be involved with such an important and relevant project. We believe this story needs to be told on screen and we couldn't ask for a higher caliber of talent to do so."
(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Jennifer Lopez (recently named as the World's Most Powerful Celebrity by Forbes) and Cameron Diaz star in the ensemble comedy What to Expect When You're Expecting, based on the bestseller by Heidi Murkoff. Lopez and Rodrigo Santoro play a couple who aren't able to have a baby and opt to adopt a child from Ethiopia. Diaz plays a fitness guru who falls for her partner on a celebrity dance show (played by Glee's Matthew Morrison) and winds up pregnant. Together for the LA press day, Lopez and Diaz chatted about their male co-stars, pregnancy, and babies:
(Photo © Lionsgate Films)
The stars of Universal Pictures' sci-fi action film Battleship hit the blue carpet in front of screaming fans to pose for pictures before taking in a special screening. The premiere took place on May 10th at Nokia Theater L.A. Live, and among the cast members who showed up to kick off the launch of film were Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgard, Rihanna, Brooklyn Decker, and Liam Neeson. Check out our full gallery of exclusive photos from the blue carpet event:
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(Photo © Richard Chavez)
20th Century Fox emerged the winner in a bidding war over the film rights to the sci-fi book Wool by Hugh Howey. Howey self-published Wool on Amazon.com and has already sold 140,000 copies (that number's sure to go up now that a film version is in the works).
According to the official announcement, Ridley and Tony Scott's Scott Free and Film Rites' Steve Zaillian and Garrett Basch are partnering up on the production. And while it would seem a natural fit given their investment in the project, there's no word yet on whether Ridley Scott intends to direct or if Zaillian will write the screenplay.
The official synopsis: "In the spirit of The Hunger Games, Wool is a high-concept novel set in a stark future; the air outside is no longer breathable, so the last community on Earth lives underground in an enormous silo. Survival is everything, and some will do anything to ensure it."
