Ellen Page to star in ‘Freeheld’

Cynthia Wade’s doc expanding to a feature film

CANNES — Endgame Entertainment is developing a dramatic feature based on Cynthia Wade’s award-winning short documentary “Freeheld,” with Ellen Page set to star.

Ron Nyswaner, an Oscar nominee for “Philadelphia,” is writing the screenplay based on the true story of New Jersey car mechanic Stacie Andree, who’ll be played by Page, and her police detective girlfriend Laurel Hester, who both battled to secure Hester’s pension benefits after she was diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Wade’s doc won the Oscar for best short documentary in 2008.

The Endgame-financed film will be produced by Endgame’s James D. Stern, Double Feature Films’ Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher, Vie Entertainment’s Kelly Bush, and Wade. Endgame’s Doug Hansen and Adam Del Deo will exec produce.

“As a documentarian and feature producer, you always look for powerful stories with subject matter that will resonate with audiences, and Cynthia’s remarkable chronicle of the battle forged by two women did just that,” Stern said.

Nyswaner’s adaptation of “Hamlet” for director Catherine Hardwicke is currently in production; he is repped by UTA. Page, repped by WME and Vie Entertainment, will next be seen opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming “Inception.”

The Hollywood Reporter

Warner Bros. laps up dog story ‘Nubs’

Real-life tale focuses on U.S. marine in Iraq and his mutt

Warner Bros. is going to the dogs, signing on to acquire and develop “Nubs,” a feel-good story of a pooch and a U.S. Marine based on a publishing sensation.

The project will reunite Warners with Justin Zackham, the writer of its Jack Nicholson breakout “The Bucket List” two years ago. Zackham will pen and produce the canine tale.

“Nubs” tells the story of a stray dog that Maj. Brian Dennis rescued while on a tour of duty on the front lines in Iraq. After nursing the dog back to health and caring for it as his own, he arranged to have him shipped back to the U.S. and was reunited with the dog when his tour ended.

The story became a media phenomenon in the fall, with Dennis and Nubs making appearances on such programs as “Today,” “The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien” and “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”

In addition to Dennis’ life rights, filmmakers have acquired the top-selling children’s book “Nubs: A Marine, a Mutt and a Miracle,” which Dennis wrote with Mary Nethery and Kirby Larson. The Little, Brown Books for Young Readers title was published two weeks ago and sits at No. 4 on the New York Times children’s best-seller list.

Zackham will produce the pic with his Two Ton Films producing partner Clay Pecorin and with Dan Levine, the former Paramount exec who helped oversee “Cloverfield” and “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” for the studio. Warners has pre-emptively acquired the project, with Jon Berg overseeing for the studio.

The project grew out of a relationship Zackham initiated with Dennis when the Marine was in Iraq, with the screenwriter-producer contacting the soldier after he read reports of the Nubs story.

Those familiar with the project say it has echoes of “Marley & Me,” the Fox breakout that grossed $245 million worldwide and focused on complicated relationships between humans — and complicated relationships between humans and their dogs.

“It’s a story that parents can take their kids to but that adults can also go to and appreciate,” Zackham said. “It’s one of those movies that everyone can take something from.”

The terrain of the Iraq War will serve as a backdrop, but the pic is not expected to contain combat scenes.

The Kapital-repped Zackham is writing “One Chance” at Paramount, the story of British opera singing sensation Paul Potts, and he created “Lights Out,” the boxing drama that has been picked by FX. He noted that he likes to toggle between dramatizing real stories and inventing new ones.

“Sometimes it’s nice to build the house (from scratch), and sometimes it’s nice to pick out the furniture,” he said.

VARIETY

Julia Roberts moves to ‘Neighborhood’

Red Om acquires screen rights to book

By MICHAEL FLEMING

Julia Roberts’ production shingle Red Om Films has acquired screen rights to “In the Neighborhood,” a nonfiction book by Peter Lovenheim to be published next April by Perigee.

Deal marks the fifth property Red Om has set up through its first-look pact with Reliance Big Entertainment; Red Om’s is one of the 10 accords the India-based giant made with production companies of A-list stars and directors. Reliance Big’s hope is to nurture 30 star-driven films it can co-finance with studios.

“In the Neighborhood” starts with Lovenheim’s realization of a lack of community in his suburban hometown. In an effort to get to know his neighbors better, he asks if he can come to their homes for sleepovers. His goal: to facilitate something more than the feeling of strangers living with strangers in modern suburbia.

Red Om sparked to the Capra-esque element, and Reliance Big agreed.

Philip Rose and Lisa Gillan as well as Roberts will produce for Red Om.

Roberts, who’s currently shooting “Eat, Pray, Love” for Columbia Pictures, hasn’t had a first-look studio deal since her alliance ended with Joe Roth’s Revolution.

Mandalay sprouts ‘Horns’

Film unit options rights to upcoming novel

By MARC GRASER

Mandalay Pictures has optioned the film rights to the upcoming novel “Horns,” penned by Joe Hill, son of Stephen King.

Novel is described as a love story driven by horror and vengeance that revolves around a 26-year-old man who wakes up one morning from a blackout hangover and finds horns sprouting out of his head. As the horns grow bigger by the day, the reason why seems to lie in the unsolved murder of his girlfriend.

Book will be published by William Morrow in February.

Deal for “Horns” becomes the latest project for Mandalay as its pursues a strategy, spearheaded by prexy Cathy Schulman, to option properties and develop them inhouse before seeking financing or shopping them to the studios. Effort is seen as a way to speed up the development process while also maintaining more creative control.

Mandalay has already packaged best-selling novels — Lauren Weisberger’s “Chasing Harry Winston” and Spencer Quinn’s “Dog on It” — before selling them to Universal, where Mandalay has a first-look deal.

Mandalay topper Peter Guber and Schulman will produce “Horns” at Mandalay, while Hill serves as an executive producer.

Hill’s first novel, “Heart-Shaped Box,” was picked up by Warner Bros.

Hill uses an abbreviated version of his middle name (Hillstrom) so as not to be immediately associated with his famous father. Few people were aware of his parentage until the Daily Variety story on “Heart-Shaped Box” was published in 2006.

Over the past year, Mandalay has also optioned and is developing Liquid Comics’ “Ramayan 3392 A.D.,” Larry Beinhart’s book “Salvation Boulevard” and Oni Press’ graphic novel “Julius.”

Mandalay is prepping “The Untitled Elephant Project” at New Line and Warner Bros., “When Dads Were Men” at CBS and “Sinatra” with Martin Scorsese at U.