Casino Royale director to helm action thriller Nagasaki Deadline

Feature film production in Hollywood has slowed down dramatically in recent months, amid uncertainty over a potential SAG strike, and the slowing economy. But according to a report on Variety, movie studios are hedging against a strike and moving ahead with more than 40 high profile films in the spring and summer of next year.

One project I just read about, that just sounds cool, is Nagasaki Deadline, an action thriller that Alcon Entertainment is co-producing with James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment. Casino Royale director Martin Campbell is set to direct the film, after recently completing the Mel Gibson vehicle Edge of Darkness. David and Peter Griffiths (writers of The Hunted and Collateral Damage), who wrote the first draft of the script, will produce.

Nagasaki Deadline follows an emotionally damaged FBI agent, who must decipher historic events in a desperate race to stop a terrorist plot.

The report also mentioned two comedies that have also found directors, including Going the Distance, which New Line Cinema has hired documentarian Nanette Burstein (American Teen) to helm; and Paul, which Superbad director Greg Mottola will direct for Working Title and Universal. Shaun of the Dead duo Simon Pegg and Nick Frost will star.

Film Fetish Trivia: Martin Campbell (who also directed the 007 film GoldenEye) is in talks to direct a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 thriller The Birds, about a flock of killer birds that take over a quiet Northern California town. George Clooney and Naomi Watts are rumored to be attached to the lead roles, originally played by Rod Taylor and Tippi Hedren.