Exclusive: The Last Word executive producer Aaron Magnani has acquired screen rights to Gearbreakers, the upcoming debut novel from 19-year-old author Zoe Hana Mikuta. The Ya book, which combines action, adventure and sci-fi, will be published in spring 2021 by Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan, with a follow-up due the next year.
Magnani will develop and produce the adaptation via his Aaron Magnani Productions and is now looking for a screenwriter after beating out other bids for the book rights.
The story is set in a warring age where a power-hungry nation uses microchip-implanted human pilots to “puppeteer” 100-foot-tall mecha robots called “Windups.” A rag-tag group of renegades known as Gearbreakers, led by a young heroine, looks to infiltrate the Windups and take the bionic nightmares apart from the inside out in the name of freedom.
“With a Hunger Games-esque intensity and a Transformers-like sense of spectacle, a film based on this property...
Magnani will develop and produce the adaptation via his Aaron Magnani Productions and is now looking for a screenwriter after beating out other bids for the book rights.
The story is set in a warring age where a power-hungry nation uses microchip-implanted human pilots to “puppeteer” 100-foot-tall mecha robots called “Windups.” A rag-tag group of renegades known as Gearbreakers, led by a young heroine, looks to infiltrate the Windups and take the bionic nightmares apart from the inside out in the name of freedom.
“With a Hunger Games-esque intensity and a Transformers-like sense of spectacle, a film based on this property...
- 9/24/2019
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
In today’s film news roundup, India Eisley-Mickey River drama “Adolescence” gets distribution and romance “Castle of Water” and horror short “They Hear It” are in development.
Distribution Rights
North of Two has acquired worldwide distribution rights to the dark coming-of-age drama “Adolescence,” starring India Eisley and Mickey River with Ashley Avis directing, Variety has learned exclusively.
The film was produced by Winterstone Pictures and is set to make its festival debut this fall. River portrays a shy teenager who falls in love with a beautiful, enigmatic runaway, played by Eisley, and is lured away from his bland life and into her vibrant and unpredictable world. He slips down a progressively dark path, filled with raging parties, drugs, and eventually heroin addiction.
The cast also includes Romeo Miller, Tommy Flanagan, Elisabeth Rohm, Jere Burns, Ever Carradine, Michael Milford, and Zac Brown Band member John Driskell Hopkins.
The film...
Distribution Rights
North of Two has acquired worldwide distribution rights to the dark coming-of-age drama “Adolescence,” starring India Eisley and Mickey River with Ashley Avis directing, Variety has learned exclusively.
The film was produced by Winterstone Pictures and is set to make its festival debut this fall. River portrays a shy teenager who falls in love with a beautiful, enigmatic runaway, played by Eisley, and is lured away from his bland life and into her vibrant and unpredictable world. He slips down a progressively dark path, filled with raging parties, drugs, and eventually heroin addiction.
The cast also includes Romeo Miller, Tommy Flanagan, Elisabeth Rohm, Jere Burns, Ever Carradine, Michael Milford, and Zac Brown Band member John Driskell Hopkins.
The film...
- 7/10/2018
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Producer Aaron Magnani has acquired screen rights to Castle of Water, the 2017 romantic adventure novel from Dane Huckelbridge. Peter Arneson has adapted the screenplay, and the pic will be produced by Magnani via his Aaron Magnani Productions and executive produced by Brendan Deneen. A search for a director is underway.
The plot centers on two survivors of a plane crash—an American man and a newly widowed French woman—who struggle to live and love while marooned on a tropical island.
“It’s a gripping story of loss, survival and love, full of surprising twists,” Magnani said. “Two characters of different cultures and sensibilities rescue each other, literally and figuratively, in a way unlike any survival tale I’ve come across.”
Magnani was an executive producer on The Last Word, the 2017 Sundance pic starring Shirley MacLaine and Amanda Seyfried; Bleecker Street released it in March 2017. His company is currently...
The plot centers on two survivors of a plane crash—an American man and a newly widowed French woman—who struggle to live and love while marooned on a tropical island.
“It’s a gripping story of loss, survival and love, full of surprising twists,” Magnani said. “Two characters of different cultures and sensibilities rescue each other, literally and figuratively, in a way unlike any survival tale I’ve come across.”
Magnani was an executive producer on The Last Word, the 2017 Sundance pic starring Shirley MacLaine and Amanda Seyfried; Bleecker Street released it in March 2017. His company is currently...
- 7/9/2018
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
A biopic about actress Hattie McDaniel, the Gone With the Wind star who became the first African American to win an Academy Award, is in development.
Variety reports that producers Alysia Allen and Aaron Magnani have acquired the writes to author Jill Watts’ biography Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood with the plan to bring the pioneering actress' life story to the big screen.
The daughter of freed slaves, McDaniel started in vaudeville and radio before portraying Mammy, a housemaid to Vivien Leigh's Scarlett O'Hara, in the legendary adaptation of Margaret Mitchell's novel.
Variety reports that producers Alysia Allen and Aaron Magnani have acquired the writes to author Jill Watts’ biography Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood with the plan to bring the pioneering actress' life story to the big screen.
The daughter of freed slaves, McDaniel started in vaudeville and radio before portraying Mammy, a housemaid to Vivien Leigh's Scarlett O'Hara, in the legendary adaptation of Margaret Mitchell's novel.
- 1/10/2018
- Rollingstone.com
A biopic on Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American actress to receive an acting nomination and to win an Academy Award, is officially in the works.
Producer Alysia Allen has obtained the film rights to Jill Watts’ biography Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood and will produce with Aaron Magnani. The producers are currently searching for the right screenwriter to adapt the book for the screen.
McDaniel — who was the youngest daughter of freed slaves — began her career as an acclaimed Vaudeville performer and one of the first black women on radio. She appeared in countless...
Producer Alysia Allen has obtained the film rights to Jill Watts’ biography Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood and will produce with Aaron Magnani. The producers are currently searching for the right screenwriter to adapt the book for the screen.
McDaniel — who was the youngest daughter of freed slaves — began her career as an acclaimed Vaudeville performer and one of the first black women on radio. She appeared in countless...
- 1/10/2018
- by Ashley Lee
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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