The writers of Hollywood will not rest this weekend, as a flurry of new scribing deals landed today. First up, that female version of The Expendables has now landed writers, but let’s get to the most ridiculous part first: the title. Deadline chimes in, saying that Millennium Films is now calling the project ExpendaBelles (yes, seriously) and the film will be scripted by Legally Blonde scribes Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith. The source isn’t entirely clear if this is in fact an entirely separate project from the 1984 Private Defense Contractors one, starring Haywire‘s Gina Carano and Katee Sackhoff, or if Millennium just stepped in, but more details will likely arrive soon.
In other major writing news, Variety reports that Sony has found a writer for Jon M. Chu‘s take on the fantasy action story Masters of the Universe. The update will be written by Richard Wenk, coming off the potential Denzel Washington project The Equalizer. Variety also lets us know that brother of The Hurt Locker scribe Mark Boal, Chris Boal, has been set by Paramount to take a stab at the sci-film Old Man’s War. The project originates from John Scalzi‘s sci-fi novel that follows an elderly man who opts into a military program where he takes the body of a younger man in order to find aliens in space.
THR also joins in on the fun, revealing that The Invasion writer Dave Kajganich, will jump into another remake of a horror classic, this time Creature From the Black Lagoon for Universal. They also note that Carl Rinsch will not be helming the project, as previously rumored. This should come to little surprise considering how his current project with the studio is reportedly going. And lastly, THR also lets us know that an upcoming romantic comedy over at Universal has found a scribe. Hatched by an idea from Couples Retreat mastermind (?) Dana Fox, the studio has set newcomer Sarah Rothschild on the film titled Gauntlet, which follows “a woman fresh off a catastrophic breakup. When she meets a new guy who actually is a good catch, she must endure the overprotective nature of her friends and family.”
Which of these projects sound most enticing? Can you believe that title for the female version of The Expendables?