CHRONICLE – directed by Josh Trank and written by son of John, Max Landis – has been getting some major pre-release buzz with our own reviewer giving it 9 out of 10 (read the review here). As a result Trank has been signed up for the FANTASTIC FOUR reboot from Fox and Landis is lining up some projects of his own.

Disney has bought an untitled adventure film pitch from Landis which involves a brother and sister involved in some kind of epic adventure. Little more is known beyond that log line. Disney sure does like those kids’ adventures though.

Landis also has several other pitches around town at various studios, including a new take on Frankenstein and the Pied Piper at Fox. There is also another adventure movie called AMNESTY which Ron Howard is due to direct at Universal. Finally he has action comedy GOOD TIME GANG which has Mark Wahlberg and Jonah Hill attached to star.

Without having seen CHRONICLE yet, it’s hard for me to comment on the man’s talent. It’s not unusual for a hot young writer to have several things set up at once as soon as they gain buzz. A few years ago STRANGER THAN FICTION writer Zach Helm was in a similar position and still has only two credits to his name. Richard Kelly, DONNIE DARKO and SOUTHLAND TALES, had a whole raft of weird sounding projects on the runway and only one or two have come to fruition in the last ten years, all with mixed results.

Still it’s good to see genuine talent rewarded and hopefully some of these projects will see the light of day. It’s about time someone did something with the Pied Piper tale, and with fairy tales being all in vogue at the moment it’s probably the right time.

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