About two months ago, I was confounded by the news that Paul Weitz would be adding another wretched project to his plate before tackling the adaptation of Nick Flynn’s masterful Another Bullshit Night in Suck City—the very unnecessary sequel-to-a-sequel Little Fockers (though that is probably the one for the studio).
Well maybe I should have not been that surprised, as according to a filing at the United States Copyright Office, Paul and his brother Chris (and David O. Russell) did rewrites on the script for Meet the Fockers1. (Okay, it is entirely possible that this was just another script doctoring gig for them, and there is no real connection, like how Kung Fu Panda is probably unrelated to the brothers’ Temple Rat for DreamWorks Animation2).
Watchmen scribe Alex Tse (fresh off of selling DA Verdict to MGM3) had performed a rewrite on Step Up4, John Lee Hancock lent a hand on Ghost Rider5, and Judd Apatow did so on Bruce Almighty (along with Bob Odenkirk)6 and the 2005 Locklear-Duff romcom The Perfect Man7 (an uncredit possibly more damning than his credit on Zohan).
Back in 2006, Andrew Niccol—man behind some films I have quite some fondness for—sold a spec to Fox entitled The City That Sailed8. According to Google search for the title, some random site recently reported that Will Smith was prepping for a film of the same name, where he would play a magician in NYC with a daughter in the UK, and when they are reunited in NYC, the city starts floating across the ocean towards the UK—typical stuff. Interesting coincidence. And Niccol also worked on a pilot proposal called Great Bridge for HBO in 20029.
Speaking of HBO, filings from last year reveal that the underrated Tom McCarthy and short-subject Oscar-winning playwright Eric Simonson were commissioned to write an untitled project10, which Simonson’s bio at the Boston Lyric Opera site claims to be a pilot. However, there is a possibility that it is Simonson's recently finished Studs Terkel doc for the premium cabler mentioned in a Playbill story from yesterday, as the filing is very vague.
Despite much ballyhoo being made about Tetro being Francis Ford Coppola’s first screenplay since The Conversation, there is not much veracity to the claim. Of course, there is Coppola’s intended Godfather Part III follow-up Megalopolis, which I assume even the most casual Coppola fan is vaguely familiar with by now; the 2001 filing for the presumably near-shooting script “Megalopolis: screenplay in four seasons”11 doesn’t shed much new light beyond a 145 page count and alternate titles “Mega” and “Catiline.” (If you are really curious about the ostensible mystery that is Megalopolis, do a Google search and a Google Book Search for “coppola megalopolis” to sate your curiosity.)
But there’s another project, sort of, and one that’s hitherto unknown: in 1999, Paramount optioned Dennis Jakob’s 1997 “screen treatment” Inferno12, based on 13-page treatment from the same year penned by Coppola himself13. (There is a slight possibility that this is an adaptation of The Divine Comedy, but for our convenience, let’s assume not.)
(For those unfamiliar with Dennis Jakob, a brief primer: While a film student at UCLA, he became friends with Coppola and Jim Morrison. Following college, Morrison stayed with Jakob, and out of their conversations came the name “The Doors.” At the recommendation of Coppola, Jakob was hired to shoot the climax of Roger Corman’s The Terror. Jakob then dabbled in miscellaneous editing work which led to Jakob becoming Coppola’s unofficial guru-of-sorts; playing a very crucial role in development and editing of Apocalypse Now, for which Jakob received the credit of “creative consultant.” During post, Jakob was enraged by Francis becoming romantically interested in someone he was romantically interested in; Jakob disappeared for awhile with some of the film’s reels and was only coaxed back by a UCLA story. Barring a few IMDb credits, after some doctoring work on Hammett, Jakob basically disappeared off the face of the Earth. Though, Errol Morris’ Oscar film from a few years back featured a San Francisco-based film historian of the same name.)
On the topic of reclusive-ish types, nine years ago, Fox Animation optioned Cupid & Psyche by Terrence Malick14; yes, I too am trying to figure out the legend (sure, there is no evidence is it based on Apuleius’ creation, but what the hell else would a pitch/script called “Cupid & Psyche” be about?) would work in a PG-rated animated film and what exactly the development exec at Fox Animation was thinking with this decision.
Finally, filings show that Tetro star Vincent Gallo has a quartet of hitherto unknown, unproduced screenplays: 2008's Hello Sadness Goodbye Love15, (registered as "print materials," so it possibly could be a book and not a screenplay), registered a week before his ostensible retirement; 2006's Stars16 and Her17, registered on the same day in August of that year; and 2005's Frobia18, registered exactly three years to date before HSGL.
The Copyright Office does not allow direct linking for filings, thus most of this is unsourced. But if curious, head here and look up the corresponding registration numbers below.
1. PAu002893506
2. V3457D303
3. V3509D176
4. V3533D389
5. PAu003014539
6. PAu002724245
7. PAu002886719
8. V3543D012
9. V3491D669
10. V3569D084, V3569D081
11. PAu002601454
12. V3440D204, PAu002477006
13. PAu002410958, V3440D203
14. V3457D797
15. PAu003378618
16. PAu003067120
17. PAu003047255
18. PAu002931329
Update (6/25): I've been getting a Google referrals from around LA for The City That Sailed; some that would suggest the project was or is in turnaround.
Update (6/29): Through a Google search, I noticed The City That Sailed is mentioned Variety's listing of Overbrook's (Smith's prodco) future slate from last December; the synopsis was very similar to that described on the Nuke The Fridge site, and as of last December the film was set up at Fox. Probably less of "interesting coincidence" and more of "they are the same film."
Update (7/8): Ooh, Statcounter records reveal that someone from VNU, probably someone named Borys Kit, visited about a half-hour before a Bory Kit-penned Hollywood Reporter story about The City That Sailed went up.
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