In today’s film news roundup, Angie Thomas’ “On the Come Up” gets a new home, Luc Besson’s “Anna” gets a release date and Roy Lee and Jon Berg announce a Vertigo promotion.
PARAMOUNT PURCHASE
Paramount has bought the movie rights to Angie Thomas’ bestseller “On the Come Up” from the now-shuttered Fox 2000 division.
It’s the second Fox 2000 project that’s been picked up this week, as Universal nabbed the rights to the historical drama “The News of the World” with Tom Hanks attached to star. Disney decided to retire the Fox 2000 label last month as part of its purchase of the 20th Century Fox film studio, opting to go ahead only with projects that were already in production.
Fox 2000 bought movie rights to “On the Come Up” on the eve of its publication in February from Thomas, who also wrote “The Hate U Give.” The production team for “The Hate U Give” will return “On the Come Up,” with Thomas producing alongside Marty Bowen, Isaac Klausner, and John Fischer of Temple Hill and Robert Teitel, George Tillman Jr., and Jay Marcus of State Street Pictures. Tillman Jr. will direct.
“On the Come Up” is centered on 16-year-old Bri wanting to be a great rapper as the daughter of an underground hip-hop legend who died right before he hit it big. She pours her anger and frustration into her first song, which goes viral for all the wrong reasons and puts her at the center of a controversy.
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RELEASE DATE
Lionsgate has set a June 21 release date for Luc Besson’s action-thriller “Anna,” starring Sasha Luss, Helen Mirren, Cilllian Murphy and Luke Evans.
Luss portrays a fashion model who becomes a government assassin assigned to a case in Paris by her boss, played by Mirren. It was the first film to be produced by EuropaCorp after Besson’s costly “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets” fell short of expectations in 2017. Luss, a Russian model in real life, portrayed Princess Lihö-Minaa in “Valerian.”
“Anna” is opening against Disney/Pixar’s “Toy Story 4” and Orion’s reboot of “Child’s Play.”
PROMOTION
Vertigo Entertainment’s Roy Lee and Jon Berg have promoted Andrew Childs to the role of vice president of production and development, Variety has learned exclusively.
Childs has been at the company for more than four years, recently serving as a creative executive in features and television, and will continue to help manage a portion of the company’s feature film and television slate.
Childs is currently overseeing development of Chris Thomas Devlin’s Black List horror spec, “Cobweb,” at Lionsgate as well as sheparding “Nimona,” the animated adaptation of Noelle Stevenson’s webcomic for Blue Sky/Disney to be directed by Patrick Osborne. Childs worked previously at CAA.