Heigl’s Escape Caught On Camera: Katherine Heigl will star in and produce the feature film adaptation of Escape, the bestselling memoir of Carolyn Jessop, whose testimony helped convict polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs. Jessop was born into the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints sect. At 18 she married a man 32 years her senior; at 35, she fled with her eight children. [Variety]
Musketeers Ride to Millenium: Millennium Films is set to adapt Alexandre Dumas’ enduring tale of “The Three Musketeers” tracing how swordsmen Athos, Porthos and Aramis first banded together. D’Artagnan, the last member of the eventual quartet, will either be introduced later in the first movie or in a second installment. Along with the Musketeers we also know that Millenium is working on a new Conan, but Variety also reports they are looking to revive Red Sonja characters, as well as Hercules and Buck Rogers. No word on who is working on “Musketeers” outside saying Millennium’s Joe Gatta and Boaz Davidson will produce, and partners Avi Lerner, Danny Dimbort and Trevor Short will be exec producers. [Variety]
Williams Joins Prince of Providence: Robin Williams is in talks to join Dermot Mulroney, Adam Goldberg, Bradley Cooper, Ed Burns and Oliver Platt in The Prince of Providence from David Mamet‘s script, which was then polished by Howard Korder, adapted Michael Stanton’s eponymous 2003 book about the man who dominated Providence’s political machine for 21 years. The drama chronicles a roller-coaster series of ups and downs for one of America’s longest-serving mayors. Williams will play charismatic and corrupt Providence, R.I., Mayor Vincent “Buddy” Cianci. Principal photography is set to begin late this summer in Rhode Island. [THR]
Cube’s Janky Gets a Director: Ice Cube may be heading back to the comedic genre that spawned Friday and all its unnecessary sequels as Marcus Raboy has been set to direct Janky Promoters, a film penned by Cube and also starring Mike Epps and Terry Crews. Raboy directed Friday After Next. Janky follows the shenanigans of a pair of shady concert promoters (Cube and Epps), self-described “Modesto’s finest,” who get in over their heads when they get a shot at booking a big-name hip-hop act. Complications come in the form of a pot-growing neighborhood nemesis named Mondo and Cube’s character’s son (Nickelodeon star Little JJ), who is under contract with the old man. Shooting begins Monday in Sherman Oaks, though the movie is set in Modesto, Calif., and takes place in a single day. [THR]
