Caffeinated Clint
Moviehole caught up with in-demand Hollywood screenwriter Josh Stolberg (“Piranha 3D”, “Good Luck Chuck”) over the weekend to chat about his latest film “Conception” but also get updates on some of the Californian scribe’s upcoming projects. If you can’t be bothered listening to the entire interview on the Hole Cast – and if not, why not!? It’s a great bloody chat!- here’s a brief rundown of those upcoming projects Stolberg spoke of :
To Catch a Thief
”I wrote, with Bobby [Florsheim], a remake of “To Catch a Thief” for Paramount. Neal Moritz is producing, and it’s exciting because it’s one of my favourite Hitchcock movies and it was fun to come at it from a different angle – make it a little bit more modern and “gadgety”. It’s the first script that I’ve ever written that [encompasses] a lot of heists and action sequences and.. it was a blast! I’m really excited. We just turned in the script to the studio a couple of months ago and they’re working on casting now. It takes place in Santarini… it’s a travelogue of the most amazing places on Earth.. it’s gonna be a fun, fun ride I think.”
Man-Witch
”Todd [Phillips, the producer] came onboard, he connected to the material. We wrote it for Warner Bros. It’s an original screenplay about a guy who finds out he is the one male witch born every century, and the male witch is typically responsible for the biggest human disasters in human history – the fall of the Roman Empire, the Great Depression. So this guy has to go to the witch training academy with a bunch of pre-pubescent little girls to learn how to control his powers before he destroys the world. Jack Black was attached for a while, he’s no longer attached.. Zach Galifiankis was attached, and still might be attached… though I’m not quite sure. ”
Secret Hasbro Project
”Bobby [Florsheim] and I just signed up to do a film for Hasbro that we’re incredibly excited about – it’s a big family film and we get to play around with a lot of Hasbro brands, but at the end of the day it’s just a great father-kid relationship story kinda in a Night at the Museum-kinda template.”
The Last Samurai
”.. a spec I have going out next week. It’s one of my favourite things I’ve ever written, it’s based on this amazing novel by Helen DeWitt called The Last Samurai – the book, I believe, came out in 2002 – and it’s such a genius book. Tom Dey, who directed Shanghai Noon, is attached to direct the film and he worked with me on the script and it’s a really beautiful story about an incredibly smart woman who’s raising a genius child who is searching for his father. I kinda liken it to About a Boy… or Searching for Bobby Fischer. I’m really hoping it finds a home sometime in the next month.”
Stolberg also says he’s working on a feature film version of “SkippyJon Jones“, a children’s picture book by Judith Byron Schachner about a Siamese kitten that looks like a Chihuahua.
