EXCLUSIVE: As New Line today opens Jack the Giant Slayer and Disney readies next week's Oz The Great And Powerful, Hollywood's infatuation with revisionist fairy tales shows no signs of abating. DreamWorks jumped into the fray last night by closing a mid-six figure against seven figure deal for Merry Men, a pitch for a film that will be scripted by Brad Ingelsby with Act Of Valor co-director Scott Waugh attached to direct. Neal Moritz will produce through his Original Film banner. Waugh will also be a producer through his Bandito Bros shingle and Toby Ascher will be exec producer.
I'm told that the pitch is for a tent pole re-imagining of the Robin Hood legend. There has been no shortage of movies on him, starring the likes of Errol Flynn, Kevin Costner and most recently Russell Crowe. This is an ensemble piece centered around the supporting characters Little John, Friar Tuck, Maid Marian and Will Scarlet. There is a high-concept revenge angle that tonally is reminiscent of The Dirty Dozen and Ocean's Eleven.
It puts DreamWorks back in business with Waugh, who is right now in pre-production on Need For Speed. The Merry Men concept was hatched internally at Original Film and packaged through WME, with Elizabeth Buraglio supervising for Original. Ingelsby most recently scripted Run All Night, a thriller that will go into production at Warner Bros with Liam Neeson starring and Jaume Collet-Serra in talks to direct. His first script, Out of the Furnace, is in the can. Scott Cooper directed the revenge thriller that stars Christian Bale. Ingelsby is currently scripting The Signal for Indian Paintbrush.
Ingelsby and Waugh are repped by WME, and Ingelsby is also repped by Energy and attorney Jeff Frankel. Howard Abramson repped Moritz.
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