CANNES: Dustin To Star In Ealing Thriller
EXCLUSIVE: Hoffman is attached to star in a $30M-40M adaptation of Irwin Shaw’s novel Nightwork, which he brought to the UK studio. William Davies, one of the writers on How To Train Your Dragon, is penning the screenplay. Nightwork is a Catch Me If You Can caper about a man who stumbles across a fortune hidden in a hotel corpse. From then on, he and his conman partner flee across Europe, trying to stay one step ahead of the men whose money it is.
Ealing Studios has also secured the rights to remake Doctor In the House. The name won’t mean much to readers in the States, but the Doctor series of films were huge hits in Britain in the 50s. They also spawned a hit 70s TV series. Richard Gordon’s novel is a comedy about a young doctor in medical school. The 1954 original – directed by Jeremy Thomas’ father Ralph — made a heartthrob out of Dirk Bogarde. Ealing hopes its reboot will provide a similar star-making role for a young British actor. If successful, Ealing hopes it could become its second franchise after St Trinian’s.
Barnaby Thompson, CEO of Ealing, tells me he wants his studio to be making between 4 and 6 movies a year – half produced in-house and the rest brought in from outside producers, such as its new Mary J Blige/Nina Simone biopic. Ealing is developing a third St Trinian’s movie, as well as a biopic of the Fisherman’s Friends singing group.
Thompson sees Ealing developing more American material, given how few domestic distributors there are in the USA. Anything to make that domestic sale easier. There is a lot of good material waiting to be made in Hollywood, he tells me. “Either it’s too expensive, or it’s been put in turnaround because of studios concentrating on blockbusters.” These projects could be financed and made more cheaply in Britain, he thinks.
While NIGHTWORK has never been produced as a film, some may recall that agent Swifty Lazar offered Johnny Carson a million dollar check on the Tonight show back in the mid-’70s to play the lead in Frank Perry’s planned film of the Shaw novel. This garnered a good deal of publicity at the time, and Carson was said to have seriously considered the matter before turning it down.
This is one of my favorite novels. long overdue for a movie. hoffman will be great and wil
Barnaby should get an old friend from the Broadway Video days involved with the “Doctor in the House” film series. You jimmy in a lot of “Kids in the Hall”/”S.N.L” sensibilities for that really great and priceless series. Just great good silly fun.
Dustin Hoffman + fleeing = comedy, not thriller
what’s going on with all these development deals being announced on DEADLINE? Does anyone really think there’s 40 million out there for a movie starring Dustin Hoffman? (This isn’t a question about his talent, just the indie film market.) Is this even worth the page space?
So this movie is about a guy who stumbles onto a fortune “hidden in a hotel corpse.”
What the (*$&@^ is a “hotel corpse?” This fortune was hidden inside of a corpse inside of a hotel? Or the remains of an abandoned hotel?
Complete fail in describing the premise of this movie.
All your fancier hotels these days come fully equipped with a hotel corpse. Just ask your concierge next time.
Hey Sned
ROFL …ha ha made my day
Watch ‘Midnight Cowboy’ dustin hoffman does a great job in that!
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