[B5JMS] Ron Howard's Changeling project falls through?

[b5jms at mail.fsl.cs.sunysb.edu]

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From: "Shabaz" <shabaz.x at gmail.com>
Date: 11 Oct 2006 09:47:40 -0700
Lines: 32

At least, that's the way an article in the L.A. Times ("The big name
gets distracted") makes it seem; that as far as Howard is concerned the
project is not going through, at least for now. You can find it here:
http://tinyurl.com/m664p

Some quotes directly relating to the project not going forward:

"J. Michael Straczynski's 'Changeling' caught Ron Howard's eye, but
then another project pulled Howard's focus."

"So it has gone with Oscar-winning director Ron Howard ("A Beautiful
Mind"), who has long been interested in making "Changeling" but who
recently committed to direct the feature version of Peter Morgan's
political play "Frost/Nixon," ... "

"At one point Howard was smitten enough with "Changeling" to meet with
Straczynski, a longtime TV writer ("Babylon 5," "Murder, She Wrote")
eager to have his first produced feature. Says Straczynski: "There are
all kinds of circumstances that can affect whether or not something
goes forward.... I've gotten very Zen about the whole thing.""

I hope we still get to see it someday, with or without Howard's
involvement. But it's too bad we won't see it for now, the article
makes the plot sound pretty intense, and I do love a good psychological
thriller. Don't know how much the rights are tied up with Howard now,
or if JMS can still shop it around in other places, if he would want
to.

-Shabaz




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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com
Date: 11 Oct 2006 18:34:53 -0700
Lines: 40


Shabaz wrote:
> At least, that's the way an article in the L.A. Times ("The big name
> gets distracted") makes it seem; that as far as Howard is concerned the
> project is not going through, at least for now. You can find it here:
> http://tinyurl.com/m664p
>
> Some quotes directly relating to the project not going forward:
>
> "J. Michael Straczynski's 'Changeling' caught Ron Howard's eye, but
> then another project pulled Howard's focus."
>
> "So it has gone with Oscar-winning director Ron Howard ("A Beautiful
> Mind"), who has long been interested in making "Changeling" but who
> recently committed to direct the feature version of Peter Morgan's
> political play "Frost/Nixon," ... "


Just to clarify before the wrong impression gets out there....the
project has not been back burnered.  First, Imagine owns the script,
they bought it, they want it, they want to see it made, so does
Universal.  When Ron decided to go with the Frost/Nixon thing first,
one option would have been to hold onto Changeling until he was free to
direct it.  But with the Forst/Nixon thing going first, Changeling
couldn't be shot until 2007...so Ron is going to produce, with Imagine,
and they're going to get another a-list director to come on board and
shoot this thing asap.  The only thing that got back-burnered was Ron,
Imagine still wants to make this, and Ron has been gracious enough to
allow another director in, but still produce it, so it can get filmed
this year.

The draft is now ready to go, there are five a-list directors who have
said they want to come on, it's been budgeted, and the president of
Imagine called today *specifically* to say that they want to put this
thing into high gear now that Ron's made up his mind.  They'd like to
see this thing going before the cameras by Spring.

jms