"Dito Montiel ("A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints") has been tapped to rewrite and direct Paramount Pictures' "Runnin'". Set in New York, the story centers on the underground world of sports betting Robert Munic wrote the original version of the script, which Montiel will now retool. "Saints" will play at the Venice Film Festival before it hit screens in the U.S. courtesy of First Look Media in September..." (full details)

"Tom Shadyac ("Bruce Almighty", "Liar, Liar") and Universal have picked up "Magic 8 Ball," a high-concept laffer pitch about the soothsaying toy by Barry Blaustein ("Coming to America") and Jason Hefter ("Assembly Required"), with an eye for Shadyac to helm..." (full details)

"Amazon.com has optioned screen rights to Keith Donohue's bestselling novel "The Stolen Child." Amazon will move to secure a filmmaker and then a studio partner to turn the fantasy into a live-action feature. Novel by first-time writer Donohue combines literature and fantasy and covers issues of identity. A 7-year-old is kidnapped by forest-dwelling changelings, who replace him with a look-alike. Book tracks the changeling's attempt to meld into a family and the boy who roams the woods with a pack of feral children..." (full details)