"Universal Pictures has acquired "Hurricane Season," a post-Hurricane Katrina drama from producers Mark Gordon and Franklin Martin. The pitch is based on an upcoming documentary that Martin wrote, directed and produced titled "Walking on Dead Fish." "Fish" and "Season" will tell the true story of the football team at East St. John High School, located just outside New Orleans. The team struggled with integrating displaced students from surrounding high school teams and tried to help rebuild their community following Katrina..." (full details) "Vin Diesel has hired the expert who translated "The Passion of the Christ" into Aramaic for Mel Gibson for his biopic project about the life of Carthagian general Hannibal. The thesp is apparently attempting to work out a script in Greek, Latin and Punic for the film and is currently scouting locations on the Iberian Peninsula..." (full details)
"Mexican actor Kuno Becker ("Goal!") is in talks to star as the young King Farouk in Christopher Miles' long-in-the-works "The Last Pharaoh." Budgeted at £4 million ($7.5 million), Kelly Reilly ("Pride & Prejudice") will play the king's wartime love interest, Barbara Skelton, who was asked to spy on him by the British embassy in Cairo. Shooting begins next year at Farouk's palaces..." (full details)
