MUMBAI: Columbia Pictures has acquired a pitch by screenwriter Sarah Thorp to be developed into a feature film produced by Original Film’s Neal H Moritz.
Columbia Pictures’ production presidents Doug Belgrad and Matt Tolmach say the film will center on a bounty hunter hired to track and bring back his ex-wife. Madhouse Entertainment’s Robyn Meisinger, who represents Thorp, will executive produce. The project was brought in to Original Film by Ori Marmur, it is learnt.
Says Moritz, “Sarah is a remarkable talent as a screenwriter – her pitch blew us away. It has great humour, action and a fantastic and troubled relationship at its core and we’re very excited by the promise of this project. ”
Moritz is the owner of Original Film, an established feature film and television company. Moritz has a degree in economics from UCLA and a graduate degree from the Peter Stark Motion Picture Producing Program at the University of Southern California.
Moritz recently produced Gridiron Gang, which starred Dwayne Johnson; Universal Pictures’ Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift, directed by Justin Lin; and the Columbia Pictures/Revolution Studios hit comedy Click, starring Adam Sandler and Kate Beckinsale.
Moritz’s upcoming films include Columbia Pictures’ thriller Vantage Point; the comedy Evan Almighty; I Am Legend, starring Will Smith; Columbia’s romantic comedy Made of Honor, starring Patrick Dempsey; Screen Gems’ Prom Night; and Columbia’s The Green Hornet.
His other films include The Fast and The Furious, 2 Fast 2 Furious, xXx, The Skulls, the HBO movie The Rat Pack, Stealth, Sweet Home Alabama, Torque, Out of Time, S.W.A.T., I Know What You Did Last Summer, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, Urban Legend, Urban Legends: Final Cut, Not Another Teen Movie, Slackers, Blue Streak, Saving Silverman, The Glass House, Cruel Intentions, and Juice.
Sarah Thorp wrote the thriller Twisted, starring Ashley Judd, Andy Garcia, and Samuel L Jackson, which Arnold Kopelson produced. She subsequently wrote on assignment for Fox, Warner Bros, Paramount, and Universal. For the past several years, she has focused on television; her pilot Crazy, which she wrote for UPN, starred Lara Flynn Boyle. She wrote a pilot for Fox last year entitled Fat Friends and currently has a blind pilot deal with Sony and Fox. She recently wrote and produced an independent feature, titled Cornelius, which is now in post-production.
