David Fincher, director of PANIC ROOM and FIGHT CLUB, has signed with Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures to helm two pictures ZODIAC, starring Mark Ruffalo, and THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, reports VARIETY.
ZODIAC is in pre-production and will also star Robert Downey Jr., Jake Gyllenhaal and Anthony Edwards. Production is scheduled to begin in September, with Jamie Vanderbilt adapting from Robert Graysmith's ZODIAC and 2002 sequel ZODIAC UNMASKED: THE IDENTITY OF AMERICA'S MOST ELUSIVE SERIAL KILLER REVEALED. The film will chronicle the murder spree of the Zodiac Killer in the late 1960s. The film will shoot in San Francisco, where the murders took place as well as Los Angeles. Warner Bros. will produce with and handle international distribution with Paramount tackling the domestic release.
The two studios hope to start BENJAMIN BUTTON in October 2006. The film has based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel has been in development for more than 15 years. Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall will produce from a screenplay by Eric Roth (FORREST GUMP). Set in New Orleans, the film chronicles a 50-year-old man who starts to age in reverse and the problems that arise when he falls in love with a 30-year-odl woman. Paramount will produce and handle domestic distribution with Warner tackling the foreign markets.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
