Tyler Perry Tobey Maguire
A number of film deals announced this week. Here are some that caught my attention.
Tyler Perry signs a new three-year first-look deal with Lionsgate for at least three more films. Lionsgate has distributed five Perry films starting with “Diary of a Mad Black Woman” in 2005.
The prolific filmmaker has “The Family That Preys,” coming out in September.
According to Lionsgate, Perry films have grossed nearly $250 million at the box office and sold more than 25 million units on DVD.
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A sequel to the musical “Hairspray” is headed to the Big Screen. New Line Cinema has made a deal with “Hairspray” creator John Waters to write the treatment with plans for a mid-July 2010 film release.
The studio hopes to bring back the original cast, that includes John Travolta, Zac Efron, Queen Latifah, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Allison Janney.
The first “Hairspray” movie grossed more than $200 million worldwide.
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Actor Tobey Maguire is about to take on a different kind of hero. Maguire, famous for playing the movie version of the web-slinging comic book character “Spider-Man,” has signed on for Universal’s “The Crusaders.”
Maguire will portray Jack Greenberg, a young lawyer fresh out of law school who got involved in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case. Greenberg joined the NAACP Legal Defense Fund headed at the time by future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
Greenberg and Marshall were on the legal team that won the historic 1954 Supreme Court case that ruled racial segregation illegal in American schools and other public facilities. The case is called Brown vs. the Board of Education. The decision inspired civil rights struggles across the country and around the world.
More on these deals at www.variety.com
