Micrograms Eyes Summits Puzzle Structure

EXCLUSIVE: Summit Entertainment is within talks with Micrograms to direct Puzzle Structure, the cop drama script by David Guggenheim. Summit acquired the project in a pitch early this past year from Guggenheim following the scribe offered the spec script Safe House to Universal, which set Daniel Espinoza to direct Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds. Puzzle Structure has been created by Temple Hill partners Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen, who produce the Twilight series for Summit. Micrograms most lately directed the twentieth Century Fox comedy What This Means Is War with Chris Pine, Tom Sturdy and Reese Witherspoon. Micrograms is repped by WME and Management 360.

Is a Mob Story the Right Good Will Hunting Follow-Up For Ben Affleck and Matt Damon?

Yesterday it was announced that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon will tackle their first major feature project together since Good Will Hunting — a biopic about Boston mob boss Whitey Bulger that will star Damon and be directed by Affleck. It’s worth wondering though — is a mob film the right follow-up to the esteemed break-out project that earned both actors/screenwriters Academy Awards and established them as marketable Holllywood stars? In 1997, childhood friends Affleck and Damon rose to fame with the release of the drama they co-wrote and starred in. The Gus Van Sant-directed Good Will Hunting — about a wayward blue collar math genius forced to evaluate himself and his relationships — launched both actors/screenwriters into the A-list stratosphere where they immediately separated professionally to prove that they were talented individual entities. Damon found success onscreen with The Rainmaker, Saving Private Ryan, Ocean’s Eleven and the Bourne franchise. Affleck meanwhile transitioned a lucrative acting career (Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, The Sum of All Fears) into a successful directing stretch (Gone Baby Gone and The Town). Although the pair reunited to act in the odd ensemble project (Dogma), produce (Matchstick Men, American Pie 2 and others under their LivePlanet shingle) and to participate in the occasional late night gag, the pair have not reunited for a real picture partnership since Good Will Hunting. The Bulger biopic is definitely a safe project considering that like Affleck’s first two directorial endeavors, the Warner Bros. film will be a gritty crime drama set in Boston. It is also unsafe in that Damon will have to convince audiences that he is not just a wholesome amnesiac assassin but James “Whitey” Bulger, the notorious Boston crime boss who spent over a dozen years on the FBI Most Wanted List and was wanted for 19 murders before his arrest last year at the age of 82. Damon has played deceitful characters (The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ocean’s Eleven) and based-on-real-life characters (Invictus and The Informant) before but it may be hard pursuading viewers that Damon is a cold-blooded criminal mastermind. Oh, and then there is that weird Departed coincidence. Damon co-starred in Martin Scorsese’s 2006 crime thriller which featured Jack Nicholson as a coke-loving crime boss largely based on Bulger. Not only will Damon have two Bulger-related titles on his resume, but he is also setting himself up for inevitable comparisons to Nicholson’s gravelly portrayal of the criminal. Deadline reports that unlike The Departed, the Affleck-Damon film will chronicle Bulger’s youth, the time he spent behind bars in Alcatraz and his life as a crime boss. This time, Affleck and Damon are leaving the screenwriting duties to Boardwalk Empire creator Terence Winter. If it works, it could push Affleck and Damon one step closer to becoming one of our great filmmaking twosomes — like Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro and Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman. And if not, it could have us wishing that the Boston-bred pair had opted for Good Will Hunting 2. Enjoy this classic scene from their 1997 breakout before weighing in below. Follow Julie Miller on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter. · Affleck, Damon reteam on Bulger bio [Variety]

'Lovely Molly' to Content

Content has snapped up Eduardo Sanchez's haunted-house thriller "Lovely Molly," which premiered in Toronto's Midnight Madness section last month. Content announced the deal Monday. Sanchez, who directed "The Blair Witch Project," helmed "Molly" from his own script. Gretchen Lodge, Johnny Lewis and Alexandra Holden star, with Lodge making her bigscreen debut. A release date has not been set. Story centers on a newlywed who returns to her long-abandoned family home where frightful reminders of a nightmarish childhood begin seeping into her new life. She soon begins descending into an evil that blurs the lines between psychosis and possession. "Molly" is produced by "Blair Witch" producers Robin Cowie and Gregg Hale of Haxan, Jane Fleming ("The Frozen Ground") and Mark Ordesky (exec producer of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy) of Amber Entertainment. The transmedia team that worked on "The Blair Witch Project" has also worked on "Lovely Molly," with multilayered viral marketing including Internet videos, web sites, mockumentaries and paid ads. The 1999 "Blair Witch" was a surprise hit with over $140 million in domestic grosses. The "Molly" deal was negotiated by Graham Taylor of WME & Stuart Rosenthal of BHDRL on behalf of the production and Jamie Carmichael on the Content side. Contact Dave McNary at dave.mcnary@variety.com

ShowEast Hall of Fame 2011

Released: Mon., March. 24, 2011, 4:00am PTBy VianeCarrollZeltnerSeddonCiaramelloAt the Wednesday ceremony in Miami/Hollywood, Fla., honorees includes Wally Disney Co.'s Chuck Viane, Warner Bros.' Frank Carroll, Clearview Cinemas' Craig Zeltner, CMCI Booking's Danny Seddon and Coca-Cola Co.'s Kathleen Ciaramello. Marty Zeidman and Steve Friedstrom will probably be honored posthumously. Chuck Viane, who outdated within this summer time after two-and-a-half decades within the Wally Disney Co., was most recently prexy of worldwide distribution for Wally Disney Art galleries Movies. Frank Carroll, Warner Bros. Pictures' senior V . p . for domestic distribution's eastern division, remains with Warners since 1973 and contains done disseminating the "Harry Potter," and "Hangover" franchises. Craig Zeltner, who's within the 14th year as Clearview Cinemas' V . p . of film, has spent 46 years inside the entertainment industry, following inside the actions of his father who was simply with MGM for 42 years. Danny Seddon, prexy of CMCI Booking (the film-buying division of Belmont Capital, remains using the organization for thirty years. Kathleen Ciaramello was responsible for Coca-Cola's partners while using entertainment industry as V . p . of a good partnership marketing. Now she's V . p . in the company's east region.SHOWEAST 2011 Five 3d myths that will not dieHonoreesShow "E" Award: Jim Amos Al Shapiro Distinguished Service Award: John C. Hall Salah M. Hassanein Humanitarian Award: Kurt Hall ShowEast Hall of Fame 2011 Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com

Upgrades give a new luxe on existence

Before its official opening, Lulu was the web site of non-public occasions, like the 2011 Palm Springs short fest closing evening fete in JuneThe desert social calendar is jammed for your season: very good news for La event coordinators that are frequently referred to as onto produce occasions within the customers hands Springs area. Growing planners' attraction to Palm Springs is the fact greater than $180 million in hotel refurbishments and upgrades within the last three years has brought to finer facilities for your desert enclave.The summer season starts while using Palm Springs Film Festival (Jan. 5-16), that's adopted shortly with the Humana Challenge Golf Tournament (Jan 19-22 at PGA West). Formerly the Bob Hope Classic, the extended-running professional-am tourney is becoming became a member of with former Leader Clinton's foundation. March makes two major tennis occasions: the BNP Paribas Open March 5-15 (in Indian Wells) as well as the K-Swiss Desert Smash March 6-7 within the La Quinta Resort. The LPGA championship tourney then hits Rancho Mirage March 26-April 1.Also round the calendar: typically the most popular Modernism Week (Feb. 16 -26), a celebration of 25,000 mid-century modern art, architecture and design fans. The cooler weather season culminates while using Coachella Music Festival, trying out two weekends in 2012, April 13-15 and April 20-22 even though the music activity fest is at Indio, the entire valley fills tabs on revelers and ancillary occasions.Possibly the highest space to start for the public in 2012 will be the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage, devoted to confabs fostering worldwide cooperation. Sunnylands' heart can be a 25,000-square-ft A. Quincy Manley-designed manse possessed with the late media magnate and U.S. ambassador Walter Annenberg and also the wife, Leonore, and visited by seven U.S. presidents together with other world leaders. Despite the fact that retreat is not a public event space, groups are welcomed for the adjacent center the Palm Springs fest situated filmmakers for just about any retreat within the center taken and may return in 2012.Improving Palm Springs' social cachet is its growing recognition as SoCal's wedding destination associated with preference. Because you will discover lots of grand private estates within gated cities, complete privacy can be achieved. In addition, choose hideaway boutique hotels, such as the Willows, the Parker, Movie Colony Hotel and Viceroy Palm Springs, lend themselves to wedding buyouts.Each season brings additions: Carrying out a $2 million restoration, LuLu California Bistro opened up up for the public in August, trying out a great downtown location which were vacant for any very long time.Just before its official opening, LuLu was the web site of non-public occasions, like the Palm Springs short fest closing evening fete in June. It's a multilevel space, with two mezzanine rooms together with a banquet room that seats 150. JDV Hospitality is aboard to handle first kind 249-room Holiday Motel on Palm Canyon Drive that was bought with the Sydell Group in September, designers in the Ace Hotels in NY and Palm Springs. The region will undergo a whole stylish update and re-open in spring.EVENT PLANNER'S GUIDE Social engineering Upgrades give a new luxe on existence Space craft Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com

IFC Midnight nabs thriller 'ATM'

Eve Peck Geraghty IFC Midnight has acquired all U.S. rights to David Brooks' thriller "ATM," which stars Brian Geraghty ("The Hurt Locker"), Josh Peck ("The Wackness"), Alice Eve ("Entourage"). Trio play co-workers who make a latenight visit to an ATM and find themselves fighting for their lives when they become trapped by an unknown man. Script was penned by Chris Sparling, whose previous credits include the Ryan Reynolds starrer "Buried." Gold Circle Films prexy Paul Brooks and Peter Safran produced the pic, while Scott Niemeyer and Dan Clifton served as exec producers. Paul Brooks negotiated the deal with Arianna Bocco of Sundance Selects/IFC Films. IFC Midnight recently released "The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence)" and will soon distribute festival pics "The Catechism Cataclysm" and "Kill List." Contact Jeff Sneider at jeff.sneider@variety.com

Shannen Doherty Marries for the Third Time

Shannen Doherty and Kurt Iswarienko Shannen Doherty has gotten married for the third time, exchanging "I dos" in Malibu, Calif., with celebrity-portrait photographer Kurt Iswarienko, People reports. Saturday's ceremony was a black-tie affair and took place at a private estate in front of 170 guests. The nuptials reportedly will air on the season finale of Doherty's upcoming WEtv reality series with her husband about planning for the wedding. The show is set to premiere in 2012. Shannen Doherty to star in new reality series Doherty and Iswarienko have been dating since 2009. The 40-year-old Beverly Hills, 90210 and Charmed actress was married to Ashley Hamilton for seven months in 1994 and Rick Saloman for nine months in 2002.