Josh Lyons

As Sully prepares to take flight in theaters this weekend, star Tom Hanks is putting together his latest project, Greyhound, a World War II drama which Hanks wrote himself.

Loving director Jeff Nichols is finalizing a deal write and direct Alien Nation, a remake of the 1988 sci-fi thriller which also spawned a TV series, for 20th Century Fox.

NBC has purchased a script for First Responders, a procedural drama from executive producer Vin Diesel. Diesel will produce the hourlong series through his One Race Television banner which has a first-look deal with Universal Television.

Sisters actor Heather Matarazzo is set to star in Struck opposite Joel McHale, Felicia Day, and Amir Talai – who is set as the male lead in the indie drama. The film is being directed by Jillian Armenante from a screenplay by David Mickel and Heather Turman.

Focus Features has secured the worldwide distribution rights to the untitled fashion drama that will see There Will Be Blood director Paul Thomas Andersen reteam with actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Focus will finance the $35 million production, eyeing a release date of the second half of 2017, just in time for awards season.

Last week, we reported that Greg Berlanti and the husband and wife team of Salim Akil and Mara Brock Akil had teamed up to develop a drama series based on the DC superhero Black Lightning at Warner Bros. TV. Now the series has landed at Fox with a pilot production commitment.

Just weeks ahead of its release, The Odds of Lightning, a new YA novel from author Jocelyn Davies, is sparking some heat in the film rights market. The book, which is being published by Simon Pulse, is set to hit bookshelves on September 20.

Sanaa Lathan has joined the cast of American Assassin, the upcoming adaptation of Vince Flynn’s novel from Lionsgate and CBS Films. Lathan joins Dylan O’Brien, Michael Keaton, and Taylor Kitsch in the political thriller that aims to trigger a new franchise based on Flynn’s best-selling series.

Academy Award-winner Reese Witherspoon and The Mindy Project creator Mindy Kaling are circling A Wrinkle In Time, Disney’s adaptation of the classic children’s book from director Ava Duvernay.

FilmNation, the production company behind the highly-anticipated Amy Adams sci-fi drama Arrival, has picked up Civil War, a spec from screenwriter David Kukoff that recounts the true story of Gloria Steinem and Phyllis Schlafly’s ideological clash over feminism in the 1970s.

Temple Hill Entertainment has acquired the film rights to acclaimed 2013 picture book Journey by Aaron Becker and has attached Monster House screenwriter Pamela Pettler to adapt the script.

Pacific Standard co-founders Reese Witherspoon and Bruna Papandrea are parting ways, ending a five-year partnership which resulted in Oscar-nominated hits Gone Girl and Wild.

Grandiosity Films, the production company headed up by Douglas Lowell, has optioned To War With Whitaker, the best-selling diary of Hermione Countess of Ranfurly with plans to produce a feature adaptation.

As we first reported last week, a new family-oriented sci-fi book Rex hit the market with some real heat behind it. Now, the YA adventure has made its way into some of the town’s biggest animation studios.

Longtime WME agent and partner Cliff Roberts is exiting the agency he has called home for over a decade. Roberts’ clients include Adam McKay, Morten Tyldum, Liz Meriwether, and Kelly Oxford.

The latest graphic novel from legendary cartoonist and satirist Jules Feiffer, Cousin Joseph, hit the bookshelves in July, and now the TV and film rights have made their way to the market.

Bryan Cranston, Laurence Fishburne, and Steve Carell are set to appear in Richard Linklater’s “sort of” sequel to the 1973 Oscar-nominated dramatic comedy The Last Detail starring Jack Nicholson.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the winners of the 43rd Student Academy Awards on Monday. This year, 17 students from colleges and universities around the world were selected from a record 1,749 submissions.

Jacobson and Franco are attached to star in the Netflix dramedy 6 Balloons written and directed by Marja-Lewis Ryan. Channing Tatum is producing through his Free Association banner.

In a reprieve to what has been a quiet broadcast spec pilot market as of late, NBC has bought The Ark, a high-concept drama spec from 20th Century Fox TV and ImageMovers. The drama comes from two-time Hit List scribe Daniel Kunka.

In what we’re hearing was an extremely competitive situation, Magnet Management and Condé Nast have secured the rights to an article published in The New Yorker this week, “We Live in the Pop-Culture World That Lou Pearlman Created” by John Seabrook with plans to develop the story into a limited series.

Hot on the heels of some of the biggest film rights deals in history, names like Hardy, Spielberg, Ellison and Rudin are already circling the hot new project being described as Narcos meets The Big Short.

After stepping into a spotlight as the first reporter to break a story on a murder in her hometown, 9-year-old Hilde Lysiak landed a book deal. Now, the rights to the forthcoming series of mystery novels, as well as the life rights to Lysiak’s story, have been optioned by Paramount Television and Anonymous Content.

Screenwriter Hillary Seitz has been brought on to rewrite Heist Society for Lionsgate. The crime thriller, based on the Ally Carter novel of the same name, is being produced by Elizabeth Banks and Max Handelman.

TriStar Pictures has optioned the upcoming book by Albert Chen which details the scandal associated with the online sports betting industry. Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way is set to produce with The Gotham Group.

The only feature story ever published by The New York Times Magazine to occupy an entire issue is now hitting the film rights market with plenty of buzz behind it. Fractured Lands: How the Arab World Came Apart by veteran war correspondent Scott Anderson has been captivating readers since its publication earlier this month.

Lionsgate has tapped Blur Studio creative director Dave Wilson to direct The Monolith, an adaptation of the DC Comics series. Barnett Brettler will adapt the script in his first major assignment.

Black Label Media has picked up the film rights to First Comes Love, the latest New York Times best-seller from author Emily Giffin. Rachel Smith is overseeing the project for BLM.

Centers on the relationship between two sisters in the aftermath of a tragic family accident.

As summer starts to wind down, the film rights market is heating back up with a new family-oriented sci-fi book, Rex. The YA adventure, co-written by authors Cody B. Stewart, Adam Rocke, and Mark Rogers, is stomping its way onto the film rights market with Kathy Muraviov and Darryl Taja leading the charge.