Shane Salerno's 'License to Steal' Pitch Lands at Paramount

June 28, 2009
by Alex Billington

Paramount, under its new leadership, paid seven figures upfront to acquire an action-comedy pitch called License to Steal (via Variety). The project is "loosely" based on a Salon.com article (read it here) about the high-end repossession business, in which agents travel all the world to reclaim "play toys" including private jets and speedboats. Shane Salerno (Armageddon, Shaft, AVP: Requiem) will write the screenplay. Star Trek writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci will be producing, but not writing, License to Steal. The two most recently produced the comedy The Proposal as well as Eagle Eye late last year. Sound interesting?

"We're thrilled to be working with Shane, a wildly inventive and talented creator. His passion was clear the minute he started telling his story. He has crafted a smart, lighthearted action movie that's fun and topical, with a ton of unexpected plot twists," Kurtzman and Orci said of Salerno and his pitch for License to Steal. I'm amazed that they're taking a non-fiction story about "super repo men" and turning it into an action movie. Especially because that title is a play on James Bond's "License to Kill," which immediately makes me think of the comedy Austin Powers. But that's Hollywood for you! We'll keep a close eye on this.

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