Less than two weeks ago The Weinstein Company proudly announced their big screen adaptation intentions for Paulo Coelho’s classic The Alchemist and now, Warner Bros. are quick to follow announcing that they have re-set a Coelho project originally set up at New Line. Variety reports that Hollywood Gang Prods. has set Hany Abu-Assad (Paradise Now) to direct the project and rewrite the script by Marcos Bernstein (Central Station).
Abu Assad who was one of the official ambassadors of the “Cinema and Politics” spotlight at the Cannes’ Critics Week sidebar 2008 edition, is attached to direct The Vanished – a Focus Features project about a father’s search for a missing older son with Nicholas Cage up for the lead. So far no updates on that project have been provided.
Eleven Minutes revolves around Maria, a young girl from a Brazilian
village who is swept off to Geneva in an affair with a Swiss
businessman. Coelho’s novel’s title refers to the average duration of a
sexual encounter, and much of Maria’s discoveries occur between the
sheets.
Gianni Nunnari will produce. Craig J. Flores and George Waud will be exec producers.
