Otto Bathurst In Line To Make Robin Hood: Origins

Lionsgate wants him to tackle Sherwood Forest's outlaw

For a while, it looked like award-winning TV director Otto Bathurst, a veteran of shows such as Luthor and Peaky Blinders, would make his film directorial debut with Kevin Costner pic Midnight Delivery. That never quite panned out, but he is preparing to make prison thriller Three Seconds. And Lionsgate has decided he might just be the man to explore an icon’s early days with Robin Hood: Origins.

Just one of the 326 Hood films riding through development at the moment, Robin Hood: Origins comes from Knights Of The Round Table: King Arthur writer Joby Harold, who has pumped out a script that purports to show how the title character returns from the Crusades to discover Sherwood Forest and the surrounding area teeming with corruption and crime. So he forms a group of outlaws and becomes a force for good. If that sounds a little bit like what Ridley Scott’s 2010 take on the character already looked at (along with several other trips to the forest), you’re not alone. We’re promised a gritty, realistic take this time, but we’ll wait and see how different it is.

Lionsgate is hoping to have the film shooting early next year, especially since rivals such as Disney, Sony and Warner Bros. all have competing projects looking to get the jump on it. As for Three Seconds, that’ll find Luke Evans and David Oyelowo in the tale of a man left in a dangerous prison after an FBI sting operation is suddenly abandoned. 

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The Babadook's Jennifer Kent To Direct Alice + Freda Forever

She's also adapted the script from a true-life tale

She made an impressive debut with chilling horror The Babadook and now Jennifer Kent has set up her next project. The writer/director is on board to adapt Alexis Coe’s non-fiction book Alice + Freda Forever.

Coe researched the real-life tragic love story of Alice Mitchell and Freda Ward, who developed a deep romantic relationship in Memphis, Tennessee in 1892. But when their love letters were discovered, there were forbidden from ever speaking again. While Ward apparently adjusted to the situation, Mitchell’s broken heart drove her to jealous, murderous rage, which then sparked one of the most sensational court cases of its time.

Kent’s first film showed a deft touch with emotional material and a grasp on writing great, nuanced roles for women, so this feels like something she could use to make a great film. Executive producer Carla Hacken, who is on board to shepherd the film alongside Greg Berlanti ad Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, feels Kent is the right choice. “From the moment we saw The Babadook, working with Jennifer became not only a priority but a passion,” Hacken said in a statement picked up by Deadline. Kent is also developing family drama Whoever Brought Me Here and period drama The Nightingale. 

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The Babadook's Jennifer Kent To Direct Alice + Freda

She's also written the script

She made an impressive debut with chilling horror The Babadook and now Jennifer Kent has set up her next project. The writer/director is on board to adapt Alexis Coe’s non-fiction book Alice + Freda Forever.

Coe researched the real-life tragic love story of Alice Mitchell and Freda Ward, who developed a deep romantic relationship in Memphis, Tennessee in 1892. But when their love letters were discovered, there were forbidden from ever speaking again. While Ward apparently adjusted to the situation, Mitchell’s broken heart drove her to jealous, murderous rage, which then sparked one of the most sensational court cases of its time.

Kent’s first film showed a deft touch with emotional material and a grasp on writing great, nuanced roles for women, so this feels like something she could use to make a great film. Executive producer Carla Hacken, who is on board to shepherd the film alongside Greg Berlanti ad Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, feels Kent is the right choice. “From the moment we saw The Babadook, working with Jennifer became not only a priority but a passion,” Hacken said in a statement picked up by Deadline. Kent is also developing family drama Whoever Brought Me Here and period drama The Nightingale. 

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Have Mercy! The Cast Photo for Lifetime's Full House Tell-All Is Appropriately Awful

Can't wait for Fuller House to premiere? Lifetime's got a tell-all movie to tide you over.

Lifetime has released the cast photo for its upcoming Full House tell-all movie, and after seeing the fictional Tanner family, we're more excited than ever for the train wreck that will be The Unauthorized Full

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• Full House
• Fuller House
• Justin Gaston

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Hannibal Returns With a Fresh Start — But It's Delicious as Ever

Given that Hannibal's Season 2 finale ended with nearly all of the main cast bleeding to death at the hands of Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen), the show could have gone virtually anywhere it wanted in Season 3. And while the show didn't actually bring in a whole new cast, the early chapters of

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Other Links From TVGuide.com

• Hannibal Buress Live From Chicago
• Mads Mikkelsen
• Hugh Dancy
• Bryan Fuller
• Laurence Fishburne
• Caroline Dhavernas
• Gillian Anderson

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5 Things That Need to Be on ABC's The Muppets or Else

After 17 years away from the small screen, The Muppets are returning to TV this fall on ABC. We already know how the show is gonna be different from the classic '70s variety series -- a mockumentary format with the gang putting on a late-night show -- and while we're sure executive producers Bill

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Other Links From TVGuide.com

• The Muppets
• Kermit the Frog
• Miss Piggy
• Lady GaGa
• Jason Segel
• Jim Parsons
• Tina Fey
• Ricky Gervais

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Emily Blunt May Be The Girl On The Train

She's in talks for the novel adaptation

Things are gathering speed for the adaptation of Paula Hawkins’ thriller novel The Girl On The Train, which DreamWorks is busy developing. The Help's Tate Taylor hopped aboard to direct late last month and now Emily Blunt is in early talks for the titular role.

Hawkins’ novel follows a recently divorced woman called Rachel struggling with her life and sinking into alcoholism to try to cope. She sees a seemingly perfect couple from her London train ride every day and starts to fantasize about their lives. But things take a turn when she returns home covered in blood after a blackout drunk spree, and may have become intertwined with their lives... According to The Wrap, DreamWorks is looking at Fantastic Four's Kate Mara for one of the other main roles.

With roughly two million copies of the tome sold so far, it’s easy to see why DreamWorks might see the potential in this one, with Secretary/Men, Women & Children writer Erin Cressida Wilson at work on the adaptation.

Blunt, last seen in Into The Woods, will be back on screens for crime drama Sicario (out here September 25) and will be heard in animated comedy Animal Crackers, due next year. She’s currently busy shooting Snow White And The Huntsman prequel The Huntsman. 

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