Category: Films

Warner Bros., who has found gold with the HARRY POTTER franchise, has landed the film rights to THE SHANNARA from Terry Brooks, the second bestselling fantasy book writer after J.K. Rowling, reports the trades.

Dan Farah brought the property to the studio and is in talks to produce via his Farah Films. Ryan Kavanaugh's Relativity Media is in negotiations to fund the project.

Tobin Bell, aka the Jigsaw Killer in the SAW franchise, has been tempted into play the premiere villain, Satan, in U.K.-based Halcyon Pictures and Utah-based Prankster Film Co.'s HIGHWAY 61, VARIETY reports. Bell will also exec produce the film from writer/directors Luke and Jeremy Jackson.

The story follows a fledgling rock group as their manager sets up a meeting with the Devil at the Crossroads, the famed Mississippi intersection where blues legend Robert Johnson claims he sold his soul to Satan as payment to be the best guitarist in the world.

Universal is going to take another spin at a SPY HUNTER feature, according to VARIETY. Paul W.S. Anderson (RESIDENT EVIL) has been hired to direct the adaptation of the classic Midway game franchise.

Anderson will team with new writers for his take on the project, which previously had such scribes as Michael Brandt, Derek Haas, Zak Penn and Stuart Beattie. The story follows a mysterious spy hunter, who works for a secret government agency using his gadget-filled automobile, the Interceptor.

20th Century Fox and Regency Enterprises have re-teaming original RINGU director Hideo Nakata and producer Taka Ichise to direct and produce, respectively, the horror film, INHUMAN, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Vertigo Ent.'s Roy Lee and Doug Davison will also produce.

The project was pitched to Regency by Eric Heisserer, who acquired the idea for the film from Orion Prout, who will serve as an associate producer on the project, which is loosely based on a real Japanese murder investigation.

With 300 brining sword-and-sandals flicks back in a big way, Millennium Films has begun development on a new Hercules feature film, VARIETY reports. Avi Lerner, Boaz Davidson, Danny Dimbort and Trevor Short will produce. Davidson, Millennium's president of production, and Joe Gatta, the company's evp, developed the property ancient Greek myth. Sean Hood (HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION) will write the screenplay and no director has been hired. The plot details are being kept under wraps.

Midnight Pictures, Wes Craven's production company, has in final talks with Dennis Iliadis (HARDCORE) to direct a remake of THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, reports VARIETY. Adam Alleca has already signed on to adapt the screenplay. Rogue Pictures will fund and release the picture.

Craven will produce alongside Marianne Maddalena and Sean S. Cunningham.

The remake will keep the core premise of killers coming to stay at the home of the parents of one of their victims, but bring a more realistic tone to the characters.

DreamWorks head Jeffrey Katzenberg said that a fifth installment of the SHREK franchise will be the last, reports THE AGE.

"It's a finite story, has been from the beginning, and I think that's part of its integrity, part of its strength, that we're not thinking this up as we go," Katzenberg said to the Australian newspaper. "Ultimately, we will come back to understand how Shrek arrived in that swamp. We will reveal his story."

John Woo is set to direct and produce NINJA GOLD, a property from videogame creator Warren Spector, the creator of DEUS EX, THIEF: DEADLY SHADOWS and SYSTEM SHOCK, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Fox Atomic and Woo's Lion Rock Prods. will produce the film with Terrence Chang as the producer. Spector is the exec producer.

Set in modern times, a descendant of an ancient bloodline must adapt to more covert forms of warfare.

Electronic Arts' THE SIMS, the bestselling PC game of all time, is making its way to the big screen via 20th Century Fox and John Davis Prods., according to VARIETY. Fox's Steve Asbell and SIMS Studio head Rod Humble are shepherding the live-action project. Brian Lynch (SCARY MOVIE 3) is the writer.

"THE SIMS has done an interactive version of an old story, which is what it's like to have infinite power and how do you deal with it," said Humble. "Given that that's an old story, you can imagine how easily that would translate to traditional storytelling."