Boston Marathon movie won’t be filmed at UMass-Dartmouth – Gordon-Levitt drops out of ‘The Sandman’
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DARTMOUTH, Mass, March 6, (Agencies): A university attended by one of the Boston Marathon bombers says it won’t allow filmmakers to shoot on campus scenes for an upcoming Mark Wahlberg movie about the deadly attack.
University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth Acting Chancellor Gerry Kavanaugh said Saturday filming scenes for “Patriots Day” there would be too disruptive. He says the university decided after talking with students and faculty members.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (joh-HAHR’ tsahr-NEYE’-ehv) was a UMass-Dartmouth sophomore when he and his brother carried out the 2013 attack. He returned to campus after they exploded two bombs at the marathon’s finish line, killing three people and injuring hundreds. His brother died after a shootout with police in Watertown, where residents also have declined to allow filming.
Producers have regularly said they’re willing to film elsewhere.
Tsarnaev was convicted and sentenced to death. He has apologized to the victims.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt has ditched his “Sandman” project at New Line due to disagreement with the studio.
The announcement came a day after New Line confirmed that “The Conjuring 2” writer Eric Heisserer had come on board. “The Sandman” had been set up at Warner Bros in 2013 with Gordon-Levitt coming aboard to produce with “The Dark Knight” screenwriter David Goyer for an adaptation of the DC Comics title.
Gordon-Levitt said Saturday that the disagrements emerged after Warner subsidiary New Line took over the project.
He posted the statement on his Facebook page Saturday:
“So, as you might know if you like to follow these sorts of things, a while back, David Goyer and I made a producing deal with Warner Brothers to develop a movie adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s SANDMAN,” Gordon-Levitt wrote. “Neil himself came on as an executive producer, we hired the excellent screenwriter, Jack Thorne, and we started in on the ambitious task of adapting one of the most beloved and boundary-pushing titles in the world of comics. I was pleased with the progress we were making, even though we still had quite a ways to go.
“Recently, as you also might know if you like to follow these sorts of things, the sorta ‘ownership’ (for lack of a better term) of the Sandman material changed hands when Warner Brothers shifted the entire catalogue of Vertigo comics (an imprint of DC) to their subsidiary, New Line. And a few months ago, I came to realize that the folks at New Line and I just don’t see eye to eye on what makes Sandman special, and what a film adaptation could/should be. So unfortunately, I decided to remove myself from the project. I wish nothing but the best for the team moving forward.
Mandalay Pictures has unveiled a trio of new projects shepherded by VP Jason Michael Berman following the Sundance sale of Nate Parker’s “The Birth of a Nation” Variety has learned exclusively.
Mandalay recently bought David M. Crabtree’s script “Phasic,” which follows a young woman who is pursued by a group of supernatural hitmen after she gains the power to transform physical objects with her imagination. Crabtree, a Clio Award-winning commercial director, also wrote “For All Time” for Lionsgate.
Mandalay has also purchased “Apex” from Black List writers Dan Frey and Russell Sommer, centering on an up-and-coming female MMA fighter sidelined by a devastating injury. When a cutting-edge genetic research company offers her a unique chance to step back into the ring, she has to fight to keep her humanity alive.
Frey and Sommer developed “Apex” with visual effects expert Steven Ilous, who will direct. Ilous worked on “The Matrix” sequels and “The Polar Express” and is set to direct.
Frey and Sommer recently teamed on the limited series “Saint Patrick” at Fox and are writing two features at Paramount — “Eternal” at Disruption and an adventure film with David Goyer and Kevin Turen of Phantom Four.
Mandalay is also partnering with Radical Studios to produce “The Last Days of American Crime” from a script by Karl Gajdusek (“Oblivion”), based on the Radical Publishing novel written by Rick Remender. The film follows an unlikely team of criminals as they plan what will be the last heist in American history as the US government prepares to broadcast a signal making it impossible for its citizens to commit crime.
Berman joins the producing team of Jesse Berger and Barry Levine (“Hercules”, “Oblivion”) on the project, which is currently out to directors.
Mandalay is one of four production companies and Berman is one of five producers on “The Birth of a Nation”, which sold to Fox Searchlight for a record $17.5 million at Sundance on Jan 25.
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