Scarlett Johansson has signed up to star in The Psychopath Test.
Based on Jon Ronson's book of same name, the adaptation will be directed by Jay Roach from a script by Kristin Gore.
According to Deadline, the Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment project will be produced by Brian Grazer and Roach. Erica Huggins and Jennifer Perini will serve as executive producers.
The synopsis for the original book reads: "What if society wasn't fundamentally rational, but was motivated by insanity? This thought sets Jon Ronson on an utterly compelling adventure into the world of madness.
"Along the way, Jon meets psychopaths, those whose lives have been touched by madness and those whose job it is to diagnose it, including the influential psychologist who developed the Psychopath Test, from whom Jon learns the art of psychopath-spotting.
"A skill which seemingly reveals that madness could indeed be at the heart of everything.
Based on Jon Ronson's book of same name, the adaptation will be directed by Jay Roach from a script by Kristin Gore.
According to Deadline, the Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment project will be produced by Brian Grazer and Roach. Erica Huggins and Jennifer Perini will serve as executive producers.
The synopsis for the original book reads: "What if society wasn't fundamentally rational, but was motivated by insanity? This thought sets Jon Ronson on an utterly compelling adventure into the world of madness.
"Along the way, Jon meets psychopaths, those whose lives have been touched by madness and those whose job it is to diagnose it, including the influential psychologist who developed the Psychopath Test, from whom Jon learns the art of psychopath-spotting.
"A skill which seemingly reveals that madness could indeed be at the heart of everything.
- 2/18/2015
- Digital Spy
Scarlett Johansson has signed on to star in Universal and Imagine Entertainment's upcoming project The Psychopath Test, which Jay Roach will direct. Kristin Gore will write the adaptation of Jon Ronson's book, which centers on the idea that one out of every hundred people is a psychopath. Ronson explores how psychopaths are diagnosed and treated, including unorthodox treatments from the past. The book hit shelves in 2011. Brian Grazer is producing along with Roach, Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey. Erica Huggins and Jennifer Perini are executive producing. Johansson was the lead in Universal's big 2014 hit Lucy, and next will
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- 2/18/2015
- by Rebecca Ford
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Exclusive: NBC has bought a half-hour comedy from actress-comedian Andrea Savage and director-producer Jay Roach. Savage will write and star in the multi-camera project, which is being produced by Universal Television, with Roach and Jennifer Perini executive producing through their Everyman Pictures. The untitled comedy centers on a woman who prides herself on her humor and edge and refuses to become typical after becoming a parent for the first time. The project is semi-autobiographical as Savage too had her first child 2 years ago. Her first gig coming back was a co-starring role in Jay Roach’s 2010 feature comedy Dinner For Schmucks, where the two first worked together. Groundlings Theatre alumna Savage, repped by UTA and Mosaic, also co-starred in the movie Step Brothers. On TV, she starred and wrote for the Comedy Central series Dog Bites Man and HBO’s Funny Or Die Presents and was most recently seen guest...
- 10/26/2011
- by NELLIE ANDREEVA
- Deadline TV
Variety is reporting that Kátia Lund, co-director of City of God (2002) will write and direct a film about Mukhtar Mai, a Pakistani woman who endured a tribal council-sanctioned gang rape and fought back against the system. The film will be produced by Jay Roach (Recount) and Jennifer Perini (Smother).
Roach told Variety, "Kátia wrote a treatment, we took it to every studio, and they all found it inspiring but couldn't imagine financing it." They finally did find funding via a partnership with Ary Digital (Pakistan's first independent TV network) and Passport Capital.
Mai's story made headlines around the world in 2002. After her adolescent brother was accused of sexually assaulting a young woman from another clan, a tribal council ordered that Mai be publicly gang-raped as punishment in order to shame her family. Variety writes, "While most victims of this authorized crime commit suicide rather than exist as a pariah, Mai fought back.
Roach told Variety, "Kátia wrote a treatment, we took it to every studio, and they all found it inspiring but couldn't imagine financing it." They finally did find funding via a partnership with Ary Digital (Pakistan's first independent TV network) and Passport Capital.
Mai's story made headlines around the world in 2002. After her adolescent brother was accused of sexually assaulting a young woman from another clan, a tribal council ordered that Mai be publicly gang-raped as punishment in order to shame her family. Variety writes, "While most victims of this authorized crime commit suicide rather than exist as a pariah, Mai fought back.
- 2/10/2009
- by karman
- AfterEllen.com
The teenage rebel is such an iconic figure in cinema, one verging on cliche, you would think that smart filmmakers would steer clear at all costs. Fortunately, writer Gustin Nash and director Jon Poll, each making his feature debut, are perhaps too new to their jobs to be smart.
Consequently, we have a fresh, provocative, surprising take on this figure in Charlie Bartlett. The film certainly hits the anticipated areas of teen angst, alienation, loneliness, disenchantment and drug use. But the makers maintain a comic touch, preferring keen observation and even irony to cynicism and despair.
Indeed, the film could be accused of being overly optimistic in the many neat resolutions of its characters' problems if it were not for the filmmakers' insistence in maintaining a veneer of fictional wish-fulfillment, a kind of wink to the audience that it would take an unlikely and sagacious teen like Charlie Bartlett to perform so many miracles. And even one of his miracles backfires badly and nearly tragically.
This whip-smart comedy should do well at the boxoffice in its early August slot, when tentpole fatigue might have set in and audiences young and old search for movies with signs of brain activity. Marketing is key, though, followed by the film's word-of-mouth and critical reception.
Like Holden Caulfield, Charlie (Anton Yelchin in a possibly career-altering role) gets kicked out of a fancy prep school at the beginning of the story. But his reaction is quite different. He accepts his punishment -- he was manufacturing fake IDs on a large and highly profitable scale -- but remains cheerfully optimistic about his prospects even when his wealthy mother (Hope Davis) has no other choice than to put him in public school. He already has been kicked out of nearly every private school worth mentioning.
Charlie doesn't know how he fits into the world, but he is determined to fit. He is a natural-born schemer but understandably uncomfortable with the genes he might have inherited. His dad -- we find out much later -- is doing time for one of his schemes, and his mom is not, as they say, dealing with a full deck. So it is he who must take care of her rather than the other way around.
The first day at the new school starts like so many other teen movies where the New Kid gets a rough treatment. But what sets this one apart is how our Charlie responds. He makes the class bully, Murphey (Tyler Hilton), his partner in a pharmaceutical business he develops. For Charlie has discovered a quick cure-all for many of his fellow students' life problems: He dispenses Ritalin, Prozac and other make-it-go-away pills to the school' populace, medicine he can so easily score because his mom maintains family shrinks on a standby basis.
Charlie sets up shop in the boys' restroom, where he lends an ear to the myriad problems of low self-esteem and desire for popularity that so many classmates feel. Two people take notice of his own sudden spike in popularity: the school's disconnected principal Gardner (Robert Downey Jr.) and the principal's daughter, offbeat beauty Susan (Kat Dennings), who is drawn to Charlie's sunny personality.
The duel between the principal, under increasing pressure from the school superintendent to maintain control over an increasingly out-of-control student body, and the rebellious Charlie and how this impacts his budding romance with Susan is the main story line. However, the film touches on the lives of many students in often poignant ways, including the bully with a well-disguised softer side, a most unpopular, suicidal kid (Mark Rendall) and a cheerleader (Megan Park) whose sexual availability covers up her deep insecurities.
Yelchin delivers one of those performances that pop eyes. He is old and wise and yet a kid. He is in constant motion but never out of focus. He hits every comic beat without sacrificing any of the seriousness of the issues and character dilemmas strewn throughout the story. He carries the movie on his shoulders yet shares every scene with fellow actors superbly. It's a breakthrough role.
Among the adults, Downey and Davis are wonderful, offering soul-searing looks at human frailty and disenchantment that comes with age. Dennings shares many tender moments with Yelchin, allowing the natural chemistry between these young actors spark the romance within the movie.
The Canadian-based production is aces, with the school and homes having a lived-in look that so seldom permeates teen movies.
CHARLIE BARTLETT
MGM
MGM and Sidney Kimmel Entertainment present an Everyman Pictures/Texon Entertainment/Permut Presentations production
Credits:
Director: Jon Poll
Screenwriter: Gustin Nash
Producers: David Permut, Barron Kidd, Jay Roach, Sidney Kimmel
Executive producers: William Horberg, Jennifer Perini, Trish Hofmann, Bruce Toll
Director of photography: Paul Sarossy
Production designer: Tamara Deverell
Music: Christophe Beck
Co-producers: Steve Longi, Gustin Nash
Costume designer: Luis Sequeira
Editor: Alan Baumgarten
Cast:
Charlie Bartlett: Anton Yelchin
Principal Gardner: Robert Downey Jr.
Marilyn Bartlett: Hope Davis
Susan Gardner: Kat Dennings
Murphey Bivens: Tyler Hilton
Kip Crombwell: Mark Rendall
Len Arbuckle: Dylan Taylor
Whitney: Megan Park
Running time -- 96 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Consequently, we have a fresh, provocative, surprising take on this figure in Charlie Bartlett. The film certainly hits the anticipated areas of teen angst, alienation, loneliness, disenchantment and drug use. But the makers maintain a comic touch, preferring keen observation and even irony to cynicism and despair.
Indeed, the film could be accused of being overly optimistic in the many neat resolutions of its characters' problems if it were not for the filmmakers' insistence in maintaining a veneer of fictional wish-fulfillment, a kind of wink to the audience that it would take an unlikely and sagacious teen like Charlie Bartlett to perform so many miracles. And even one of his miracles backfires badly and nearly tragically.
This whip-smart comedy should do well at the boxoffice in its early August slot, when tentpole fatigue might have set in and audiences young and old search for movies with signs of brain activity. Marketing is key, though, followed by the film's word-of-mouth and critical reception.
Like Holden Caulfield, Charlie (Anton Yelchin in a possibly career-altering role) gets kicked out of a fancy prep school at the beginning of the story. But his reaction is quite different. He accepts his punishment -- he was manufacturing fake IDs on a large and highly profitable scale -- but remains cheerfully optimistic about his prospects even when his wealthy mother (Hope Davis) has no other choice than to put him in public school. He already has been kicked out of nearly every private school worth mentioning.
Charlie doesn't know how he fits into the world, but he is determined to fit. He is a natural-born schemer but understandably uncomfortable with the genes he might have inherited. His dad -- we find out much later -- is doing time for one of his schemes, and his mom is not, as they say, dealing with a full deck. So it is he who must take care of her rather than the other way around.
The first day at the new school starts like so many other teen movies where the New Kid gets a rough treatment. But what sets this one apart is how our Charlie responds. He makes the class bully, Murphey (Tyler Hilton), his partner in a pharmaceutical business he develops. For Charlie has discovered a quick cure-all for many of his fellow students' life problems: He dispenses Ritalin, Prozac and other make-it-go-away pills to the school' populace, medicine he can so easily score because his mom maintains family shrinks on a standby basis.
Charlie sets up shop in the boys' restroom, where he lends an ear to the myriad problems of low self-esteem and desire for popularity that so many classmates feel. Two people take notice of his own sudden spike in popularity: the school's disconnected principal Gardner (Robert Downey Jr.) and the principal's daughter, offbeat beauty Susan (Kat Dennings), who is drawn to Charlie's sunny personality.
The duel between the principal, under increasing pressure from the school superintendent to maintain control over an increasingly out-of-control student body, and the rebellious Charlie and how this impacts his budding romance with Susan is the main story line. However, the film touches on the lives of many students in often poignant ways, including the bully with a well-disguised softer side, a most unpopular, suicidal kid (Mark Rendall) and a cheerleader (Megan Park) whose sexual availability covers up her deep insecurities.
Yelchin delivers one of those performances that pop eyes. He is old and wise and yet a kid. He is in constant motion but never out of focus. He hits every comic beat without sacrificing any of the seriousness of the issues and character dilemmas strewn throughout the story. He carries the movie on his shoulders yet shares every scene with fellow actors superbly. It's a breakthrough role.
Among the adults, Downey and Davis are wonderful, offering soul-searing looks at human frailty and disenchantment that comes with age. Dennings shares many tender moments with Yelchin, allowing the natural chemistry between these young actors spark the romance within the movie.
The Canadian-based production is aces, with the school and homes having a lived-in look that so seldom permeates teen movies.
CHARLIE BARTLETT
MGM
MGM and Sidney Kimmel Entertainment present an Everyman Pictures/Texon Entertainment/Permut Presentations production
Credits:
Director: Jon Poll
Screenwriter: Gustin Nash
Producers: David Permut, Barron Kidd, Jay Roach, Sidney Kimmel
Executive producers: William Horberg, Jennifer Perini, Trish Hofmann, Bruce Toll
Director of photography: Paul Sarossy
Production designer: Tamara Deverell
Music: Christophe Beck
Co-producers: Steve Longi, Gustin Nash
Costume designer: Luis Sequeira
Editor: Alan Baumgarten
Cast:
Charlie Bartlett: Anton Yelchin
Principal Gardner: Robert Downey Jr.
Marilyn Bartlett: Hope Davis
Susan Gardner: Kat Dennings
Murphey Bivens: Tyler Hilton
Kip Crombwell: Mark Rendall
Len Arbuckle: Dylan Taylor
Whitney: Megan Park
Running time -- 96 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 6/26/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Warner Bros. Pictures has picked up an original comedy project from Ken Kaufman, with Jay Roach on board to direct. Roach also is producing with his Everyman Pictures partner Jennifer Perini.
The project, described as an off-center comedy and bought as a pitch, follows two party-loving male friends who are as close as brothers. When one of them dies in a fluke accident, the other succumbs to grief, until he meets a stranger who eerily resembles his dead friend, only shorter and nerdier. He then sets out to corrupt him and refashion him (a la Vertigo) into his lost buddy.
Greg Silverman is overseeing for Warners along with Elishia Holmes.
Kaufman's credits include Universal's Curious George as well as Columbia's The Missing, directed by Ron Howard, and Warners' Space Cowboys for director Clint Eastwood. He is repped by Endeavor and attorney Keith Fleer.
Roach, who produced Borat with Sacha Baron Cohen, was the helmer behind Meet the Parents and its offspring, Meet the Fockers, as well as the Austin Powers movies.
The project, described as an off-center comedy and bought as a pitch, follows two party-loving male friends who are as close as brothers. When one of them dies in a fluke accident, the other succumbs to grief, until he meets a stranger who eerily resembles his dead friend, only shorter and nerdier. He then sets out to corrupt him and refashion him (a la Vertigo) into his lost buddy.
Greg Silverman is overseeing for Warners along with Elishia Holmes.
Kaufman's credits include Universal's Curious George as well as Columbia's The Missing, directed by Ron Howard, and Warners' Space Cowboys for director Clint Eastwood. He is repped by Endeavor and attorney Keith Fleer.
Roach, who produced Borat with Sacha Baron Cohen, was the helmer behind Meet the Parents and its offspring, Meet the Fockers, as well as the Austin Powers movies.
- 5/23/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Universal Pictures has picked up Shy Guy, a comedy from writers Dan Greaney and Jeff Poliquin. Jay Roach and Jennifer Perini will produce via Roach's Everyman Pictures. "Guy" tells the story of a shy, retiring bookbinder who resists his impulsive, hard-partying brother's efforts to blast him out of his shell. Holly Bario will oversee for Universal.
- 10/16/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Variety reports that Diane Keaton, Dax Shepard and Liv Tyler have signed on to topline Smother for Bill Johnson and Jim Seibel's Inferno Distribution. The indie film, written by Tim Rasmussen and Vince Di Meglio, centers on a recently unemployed guy whose meddling mom moves in with him and his wife. Di Meglio makes his directorial debut with the $15 million project. Inferno will produce with Jay Roach and Johnson Chan; Jennifer Perini and Matt Berenson are on board as executive producers.
- 9/22/2006
- IMDbPro News
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