Project described as comedic superhero story
Sam Raimi is going Disney. The studio apartment has picked up "The Transplants," an action-adventure peddle from scribes Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson for the filmmaker to produce via the Stars Road Entertainment banner he runs with partner Josh Donen.
The parties are keeping a tight lid on the high-concept project, though it is described as a four-quadrant ensemble superhero story with a comedic bent.
Epstein and Jacobson, best known for "Not Another Teen Movie," were planning to execute their mind via a comic quran, but Disney exec Kristin Burr was so acute on it that the company pre-emptively picked up "Transplants." The deal is in the mid- to high-six figures.
Stars Road executive Russell Hollander brought the fancy to the studio.
Last weekend, Raimi was at Comic-Con in San Diego, where he showed cancelled well-received clips from his return-to-horrror film "Drag Me to Hell." Stars Road is unitary of the entities behind Screen Gems' dramatic thriller "Armored."
Epstein and Jacobson, repped by UTA and H2F Entertainment, most lately wrote the action comedy "Crash Test Dummies" for Barry Josephson at Fox. They as well directed and co-wrote the upcoming Dimension release "Extreme Movie," which stars Michael Cera.
The Disney-Raimi pairing is eyebrow-raising: "Transplants" marks the first Disney project for the film maker, who is known more for his horror fare and "Spider-Man" movies, non to mention his comedic sensibilities that attract the geek audience. Disney, on the other hand, isn't exactly known for its edge, with fare that plays clean broad.
Still, a few projects and name calling pop from the Disney slate, such as the Bruce Willis sci-fi actioner "Surrogates" and the Tim Burton-directed "Alice in Wonderland," which is sure to attract literary hipsters as much as families.
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