Walden Media Fans

Last year, Angelina Jolie signed to direct Unbroken for Universal and Walden Media.  Now the Coen brothers have been tapped to rewrite Unbroken, the adaptation of Laura Hillenbrand’s 2010 book — which has been trying to mount a Louis Zamperini story in some form or fashion for decades.

After Jolie signed in December, she spent weeks searching for the right writers for the job, and wanted only top-flight talent.  William Nicholson and Richard LaGravenese worked on previous drafts pre-Jolie.

Louis Zamperini was a Los Angeles high school track star who raced in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. In 1943, his Air Force plane crashed in the Pacific. He survived without food and water for 47 days, enduring shark attacks, aerial attacks and hunger before washing ashore on a Japanese island behind enemy lines, where he was held as a prisoner of war for two years and tortured by his captors.

Jolie is producing with Matthew Baer and Erwin Stoff. Walden Media will co-finance.

Among the top screenwriters in town, the Coens have been nominated five times for Academy Awards in the writing category, winning for No Country for Old Men and Fargo. The brothers usually direct and produce what they write, but they take on assignments in rare cases.

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A few months ago, I learned that Walden Media was hoping to bring back the family movie night.  The goal is to do something similar to the Disney’s old family movie of the week.   It’s finally been announced as Hallmark Channel is launching a new family TV-movie series.

This will be in partnership with Walmart, Proctor & Gamble, Walden Media and Arc Entertainment, the cable network will unveil Walden Family Theater as a destination for family-friendly films.

According to an article in The Hollywood Reporter, there will be six new films airing on Fridays throughout the year, in addition to a slew of favorites from Hallmark Channel’s library. Walmart will sell DVDs of the new movies the Tuesday after they air.

Walden Family Theater will debut March 15 with the world premiere of the Walden/Arc-produced film Return to Nim’s Island starring Bindi Irwin, daughter of the late Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin. Walmart will sell the DVD on March 19. (The film is scheduled to hit movie theaters April 4 in Australia.)

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We got an e-mail this week from Walden Media confirming details of the release of Return to Nim’s Island.

The sequel to 2008′s Nim’s Island will air on March 15, on the Hallmark Channel.

It will be broadcast at 6pm, with a repeat broadcast immediately following at 8pm.

It will then be released on DVD on March 19th in Walmart stores.

The sequel stars Bindi Irwin as Nim, alongside Toby Wallace, Matthew Lillard and John Waters.

Angelina Jolie is in talks to direct the World War II drama Unbroken for Universal Pictures and Walden Media.

The film is an adaptation of the 2010 book by Laura Hillenbrand (Seabiscuit: An American Legend) and tells the story of Olympic athlete and Air Force officer Louis Zamperini, who survived a plane crash during World War II and clung to life on a raft for 47 days. He was captured by the Japanese and served hard time in a POW camp.

Hillenbrand’s book spent 108 on the New York Times best-seller list, including 14 weeks at No. 1.

“I read Laura Hillenbrand’s brilliant book, and I was so moved by Louie Zamperini’s heroic story, I immediately began to fight for the opportunity to make this film,” Jolie said in a statement.  “Louie is a true hero and a man of immense humanity, faith and courage. I am deeply honored to have the chance to tell his inspiring story.”

The news was announced by Universal Pictures chairman Adam Fogelson and co-chairman Donna Langley and Walden Media CEO Michael Bostick.

“In her life and in her work, Angelina has embraced stories and causes involving great struggle and triumph over tremendous odds and the basic human condition,” said Fogelson and Langley in a joint statement. “She has a real ability to illustrate the strength in human spirit which will be essential in telling Lou’s story of survival and great heroism.”

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Lois Lowry’s book The Giver is inching closer to the big screen.  Many years ago Walden Media had the rights to create the motion picture version of the story.  They didn’t hold on to those rights.  However, it appears that they’ve acquired the rights once again, if they had ever truly dropped them.

Variety reports that director Phillip Noyce (Salt, Patriot Games) is now in early talks to helm the adaptation for The Weinstein Company, Walden Media, and star Jeff Bridges.

The book concerns a utopian society where all memories of the past reside with a sage figure known as “The Giver.”  When a 12-year-old boy is selected to be the new Giver, he learns of the hypocrisies and hidden truths of his world.  Bridges nabbed the rights to the book 20 years ago with the intention of developing it as a starring vehicle for his father, Lloyd, but now he intends to produce and star.

Walden Media and Paramount have hired screenwriter Jamie Linden to write and direct a family holiday comedy called The Flight Before Christmas.  It’s a film based on an original idea by Walden Media executive Evan Turner about a family trying to survive the plane ride from hell on Christmas Eve.  No actors have been attached yet, nor has a release date been scheduled.

If I had to guess, I would say that the film could be ready for release for Christmas in 2013, but more likely it’ll be Christmas in 2014.

Nim’s Island 2 co-producer Paula Mazur is so impressed with Bindi that she hopes to make more Nim’s Island movies starring the talented teenager, who lives at her family’s Australia Zoo on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Bindi starred in the 2010 movie Free Willy: Escape From Pirate Cove, has co-written junior wildlife novels and appeared on television many times including on the Oprah Winfrey show.

“There’s no one in the world better suited than Bindi Irwin, she was born to play Nim,’’ Mazur said.

“She’s an animal person, an outdoors person, she’s fearless, the right age, she’s beautiful, she’s everything we could have hoped for for Nim, she is a dream come true. She’s a real natural actress….I hope she continues with acting because she has a lot of potential.

“I can’t imagine another 14-year-old that has the worldwide stature that Bindi does.”

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Bindi Irwin, in an exclusive on-set interview, said she instantly related to the lead role of Nim, who lives on a deserted island with her father Jack (Matthew Lillard) and best friends Selkie, a sea lion, and Fred, a bearded dragon lizard.

The 14-year-old said a highlight had been riding the two Sea World sea lions, who share the acting duties, and joked the sea lions “are better trained than me’’.

“Riding underneath the water has been the most incredible experience of my life,’’ she said.

Bindi revealed the last time she came “up-close and personal’’ with sea lions was when she made a documentary with her father Steve Irwin, who was killed by a stingray in 2006.

“I hope to make him (my dad) proud, that’s what I’m striving for,’’ Bindi says.  “When you lose someone whose life was so extraordinary like my dad’s, you have two options: You can curl up in a dark corner…or rise above it and dust yourself off and continue with their work. He will always be with me.’’

Bindi said she wanted to continue with acting especially when there was an environmental message involved. In Nim’s Island 2, inspired by Victorian writer Wendy Orr’s novel Nim at Sea, poachers arrive on the island and kidnap several animals including Selkie. Nim, with the help of new friend Edmund (Toby Wallace of Neighbour’s fame) launches a rescue mission.

“Nim is trying to protect her island and I can relate to that because we are fighting to protect the beautiful pristine area of Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve in North Queensland which the mining companies are interested in,’’ Bindi said.

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Andy Fickman is one of Hollywood’s workhorse directors who rarely makes headlines. But the family-film specialist (Race to Witch Mountain, You Again) earned Billy Crystal’s stamp of approval to oversee the Dec. 25 release Parental Guidance, which explores what happens when tradition-bound grandparents — played by Crystal and Bette Midler — must adapt to the demands of their 21st-century grandkids while acting as babysitters.

“I knew the story was near and dear to him,” Fickman says of Crystal, who based the concept on his own life. “I am a parent, and one of the things that really appealed to me was how universal the story was and how, when generations get together for holidays, there is always comedy.”

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Family adventure film Nim’s Island 2, starring Bindi Irwin, has begun shooting on the Gold Coast.

The film also stars US actor Matthew Lillard (The Descendants, Scooby Doo), who plays marine scientist Jack, the father of Nim (Bindi Irwin), as well as Aussie actors John Waters (Looking Through the Glass Onion, Offspring), Toby Wallace (Surviving Georgia, Neighbours), Nathan Derrick (Rush, Bed of Roses), Sebastian Gregory (Neighbours, Accidents Happen) and Jack Pearson (Winners & Losers).

The original Nim’s Island grossed $US48 million in North America and almost $6.2 million at the Australian box office. While it was shot in Queensland, it did not qualify as an Australian production, unlike the sequel which is now underway.

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