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News Bits: New Wanted 2 Writer; Searchlight Picks Up Nice

by Alex Billington
April 17, 2009

There are a few good nuggets of news worth reporting today, but they're a bit small, so I thought I'd throw them together in one article. First up, Universal has hired a new writer for Wanted 2, the sequel to Timur Bekmambetov's summer hit from last year. Unfortunately, it's not anyone you might know. Evan Spiliotopoulos, co-writer of "Pooh's Heffalump Movie" and its spinoff, has been hired to write a script based on a story by Chris Morgan. In other news, Fox Searchlight has acquired the screen rights to Nice, a book by Jen Sacks, which will be developed and produced by Reese Witherspoon for her to eventually star in.

Nice is about a magazine writer who accidentally kills her boyfriend. She finds a way to get rid of the body and discovers that killing boyfriends is easier than breaking up with them. The project was originally setup at Warner Brothers with Helen Hunt set to star, but that deal fell through since they tried too hard to "lighten the tone" and it never got approved. Ben Queen ("Drive") will adapt the darkly humorous novel, and "will try to maintain the dark, edgy tone of the book" this time around. As for Spiliotopoulos and Wanted 2, don't get too upset, because I'm sure his early Disney jobs were just his way of breaking into the industry.

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