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Tuesday
13Oct2009

Gary Ross May Helm 'Matt Helm' Before 'Venom'

DateTuesday, October 13, 2009 at 12:53AM
Last week, I made an off-hand comment that I'd like to see writer-director Gary Ross work more often. I mean, Pleasantville and Seabiscuit are the only films he's directed, even though he has a couple other projects down the road a piece. He's been linked to Venom, the Spider-Man spin-off he would tackle after writing the script for Spider-Man 4, and now he might take on another hot property.

The Playlist writes that Ross may take over the director's chair for Matt Helm, which was at the center of the messy Spielberg-DreamWorks-Paramount fallout earlier this year. Spielberg was supposed to direct it for Paramount, but the studio won't let him go near its new Bournesque franchise.

Matt Helm will be based on the Cold War spy novels by Donald Hamilton, updated to gravy train the way James Bond did. And Ross might be directing the suddenly hot Bradley Cooper, an actor studios have suddenly started circling for future franchise opportunities.

A lot of the business is based on striking when the iron is hot, and Cooper has had a lot of headlines lately thanks to The Hangover, The A-Team, and his close call with The Green Lantern. I don't think I have to tell you Cooper probably wouldn't be in this discussion a year ago.

The story goes that Venom is quite a ways off and between now and then, Matt Helm is going to get underway, so there's no conflict there. In fact, Paramount reportedly wants to get the new spy movie into production next summer.

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | CommentPost a Comment |

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