King James: Lionsgate has teamed up with Interscope Records to nab the rights to More Than a Game, a documentary about LeBron James’s high-school days. The film, which follows James and his teammates at Akron, Ohio’s St. Vincent-St. Mary High School as they go from rundown gym to national glory, debuted to much fanfare at Toronto this year. Now all that’s needed is a storybook ending to LeBron’s incredible story — a trade to the Knicks. [Variety]
Mumbai Calling: The writer behind Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, Paul Schrader, is packing his bags and heading for Mumbai to write and direct Bollywood action flick Extreme City. The cross-cultural tale will focus on an American man who’s in India to resolve a kidnapping case for his father-in-law, when he finds himself caught the middle of a gangster plot. Think Travis Bickle dancing in the streets while wearing a puffy shirt. [HR]
Don’t Do That, Bro: Barry Sonnenfeld and CBS are developing a dude-friendly single-camera sitcom called Things a Man Should Never Do Past 30. The project is based on a list of 500 such rules written by Esquire contributing editor David Katz, who’s penning the script with fellow Esquire scribe A.J. Jacobs. The show focuses on an editor at a men’s magazine who can’t embrace adulthood. Finally, a man-child comedy! [HR]
CW Gets Punk’d: Ashton Kutcher’s production company Katalyst Films is bringing two projects to the CW: The Beautiful Life is a drama that centers on male and female models who live together in New York, including Christopher, a 22-year-old “destined for the JC Penney catalog,” and 15-year-old Reyna, “destined to become the next Heidi Klum.” Chloe Gamble is about a Texas beauty queen who moves to Hollywood to achieve stardom. Both shows end each episode with Kutcher jumping out from behind a truck to reveal scenes from next week. [Variety]
Love Story: Production is set to begin next year on an indie documentary chronicling the fight for same-sex marriage across America. Produced by Robert Zimmer Jr., Matthew Mishory, and Michael Einheuser, the doc will follow philosophy professor Dr. John Corvino as he travels the country learning inspiring personal stories and debating gay marriage’s biggest opponents. We’re especially looking forward to the reasoned, thoughtful debate with Fred Phelps. [HR]
Society Girls: Producer Maurice Kanbar and Daphne Zuniga are teaming up to make The Scene, a dark satire about the Manhattan party circuit and entertainment industry. In the Theresa Rebeck screenplay, adapted from her play Gossip, Zuniga plays a cynical TV talk-show producer who must deal with a chameleon-like social climber. But the film is being shot in San Francisco, which is a mistake, because there’s no social climber like a Manhattan social climber. [HR]
