Jeremy Irvine and Colin Firth in Railway Man; Corey Stoll’s Next Move

Thompson on Hollywood TOH

 

IN THE WORKS: Lionsgate’s AFM Slate; Irvine and Firth in Railway Man; Corey Stoll’s Next Move

 

Lionsgate is busy, handling several new projects at the AFM. There’s Murder of a Cat, from producer Sam Raimi and his director wife, Gillian Greene Raimi. The dark comedy is about a man who discovers his recently murdered cat had a double life with a mysterious young woman. There are echoes Martin McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore, but with the suggestion of romance. Jay Baruchel, Dianne Wiest, Alison Pill, Rob Lowe and JK Simmons will star.

Lionsgate also has Penthouse North, starring Michelle Monaghan as a reclusive photojournalist and Michael Keaton as a a sadistic jewel thief who is looking for a hidden stash of diamonds in her New York City penthouse. Joseph Ruben (Sleeping with the Enemy) will direct.

They’re also handling: a thriller from director Paul Schrader (writer of Taxi Driver) and writer Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho) about a man seeking revenge after begin assaulted by a group of rich kids, as well as an untitled comedy from Diablo Cody which has Octavia Spencer on board, and Jonathan Teplitzky’s upcoming World War II drama The Railway Man, starring Jeremy Irvine as the young Colin Firth.

Irvine, the star of Steven Spielberg’s War Horse, has already wrapped Ol Parker’s Now is Good (opposite Dakota Fanning, Paddy Considine and Olivia Williams) and is currently shooting Mike Newell’s Great Expectations (with Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter and Holliday Grainger). The Railway Man is based on Eric Lomax’s memoir (adapted for the screen by Frank Cottrell Boyce and Andy Paterson) about working on Japan’s Death Railway. More details on the plot are here. Lionsgate has UK rights and is handling foreign sales.

After his brilliant turn as Ernest Hemingway in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, Corey Stoll is trying to make the right next steps. He will appear in Tony Gilroy’s The Bourne Legacy (sans Matt Damon, but with Jeremy Renner, Edward Norton, Rachel Weisz and Joan Allen), and now he’s joined the cast of Decoding Annie Parker, a dramedy currently shooting in Los Angeles which will co-star Samantha Morton, Helen Hunt, Aaron Paul, Maggie Grace and Rashida Jones. Morton plays the title character, a breast-cancer patient hell bent on solving the mystery of her illness; Stoll plays a doctor who tries to help her. The film is cinematographer Steven Bernstein’s writing and directing debut.