Deadline
DEADLINE | Belgravia and Star Trek actress Alice Eve has signed to star in The Queen Mary, the first in a planned trilogy of horror films inspired by the hauntings on-board the infamous ocean liner.
As previously revealed, Gary Shore (Dracula Untold) will direct off of a screenplay written by Stephen Oliver, Tom Vaughan, and Shore.
Plot details are being kept under wraps but the film is inspired by stories of hauntings on the famed ocean liner that is now permanently docked in Long Beach, CA. The multi-storied ocean liner, named Time Magazine’s most haunted place in the world, receives two million visitors each year.
EXCLUSIVE: Helen Mirren is finalizing a deal to play Sarah Winchester, the conflicted multimillionaire heiress to the Winchester Arms fortune in Winchester. The supernatural thriller will be helmed early next year by Daybreakers helmers Michael Spierig & Peter Spierig, based on the world famous Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, CA. (LINK)
EXCLUSIVE: CBS Films has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Winchester, a fascinating atmospheric thriller with basis in fact that has Helen Mirren playing an heiress to a gun-making fortune who builds a massive mansion to atone for guilt over the weapons. Bullitt Entertainment and Diamond Pictures made the deal for a film that will be directed by Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig (Predestination) from the script they wrote with Tom Vaughan. (LINK)
Variety
Jason Clarke is in negotiations to star opposite Helen Mirren in the CBS Films thriller “Winchester.”
Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig are directing the film from their screenplay with Tom Vaughan. The movie is produced by Blacklab Entertainment’s Tim McGahan and Imagination Design Works’ Brett Tomberlin. (LINK)
CBS Films announced has acquired the U.S. distribution rights to Helen Mirren’s drama “Winchester” from Bullitt Entertainment and Diamond Pictures.
The film is being directed by brothers Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig (“Predestination”), who wrote the screenplay with Tom Vaughan. Producers are Imagination Design Works’ Brett Tomberlin and Blacklab Entertainment’s Tim McGahan. (LINK)
Hollywood Reporter
The comic book powerhouse will produce scripted programming from their library as well as new material.In a deal a year in the making, comic book powerhouse Dark Horse (The Mask, Hellboy) is getting into the television business with Universal Cable Productions.
The NBCUniversal-owned cable-focused studio has signed Dark Horse Entertainment to a multiple-year overall deal that will see the comics publisher produce scripted programming from their extensive library as well as develop new properties. Conversations for the deal began at Comic-Con 2014 when Dark Horse introduced UCP execs to their top writers and artists — which led to multiple television projects with direct involvement from the comics creators. (LINK)
Houston
Playing House likely is the closest thing to a class reunion that you’ll encounter at the 2011 WorldFest/Houston International Film Festival.
Produced, directed and (with Kristy Dobkin) co-written by Tom Vaughan – a University of Houston grad with a respectable number of film and TV screenwriting credits on his resume – it’s a slick, steamy erotic thriller that showcases no fewer than seven UH grads in its cast. [LINK]
Blogs and Podcasts
Screenwriter and Development Executive Tom Vaughan joins us to talk about working as a writer in Los Angeles and teaching screenwriting in LA and Houston. Tom also shares what it’s like to develop scripts at a small production company and gives some advice to new screenwriters as well. [LINK]
Kicking off Season 3: Production is producing/directing team Chris Uettwiller and Tom Vaughan who recently finished their feature film, Playing House, which is Tom’s directorial debut. Tom and Chris talk about the first day on set and the value of having solid pre-production. They also discuss their 7-year partnership and how that helped them to have a successful shoot. [LINK]
Reviews
The directors, Peter and Michael Spierig (who made “Predestination” and “Jigsaw”), wrote the script with Tom Vaughan. They take an old-fashioned haunted-house tale and, without recourse to visually or sonically disgusting elements, build and unfold a story that’s largely centered on dialogue and that runs, above all, on an element of moral and political disgust. The action is set in 1906. Helen Mirren stars as Sarah Winchester, a colossally wealthy woman who maintains her mansion in San Jose, California, in a constant (literally) state of construction… [LINK]