EXCLUSIVE: Samuel Franco and Evan Kilgore, whose scripts Keeper of the Diary, and Mayday 109 lit up the town when they went to market, have signed with Management 360’s Geoff Shaevitz and Evan Silverberg.
Franco and Kilgore’s script, Keeper of the Diary sold to Fox Searchlight in a fierce bidding war for high-six figures as Deadline exclusively reported in January 2017. Script follows the untold true story of Holocaust survivor Otto Frank’s struggle to publish the diary of his daughter, Anne Frank, with the unlikely assistance of Barbara Zimmerman, a young, inexperienced, female junior editor at Doubleday & Co. The script made the 2017 Black List, as well as The Hit List. Film is being produced by New Mandate’s Matti Leshem and Lynn Harris, alongside Sir Kenneth Branagh and Judy Hofflund. Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Reed Morano is attached to direct, with Branagh set to star as Otto.
Franco and Kilgore’s script Mayday 109, set off a competitive bid before it was acquired by Thunder Road Pictures with Basil Iwanyk attached to produce alongside FlynnPictureCo.’s Beau Flynn. A World War II survival action-thriller, script tells the true story of how a young John F. Kennedy, serving in the Navy, fought to save the crew of his PT boat after it was destroyed by a Japanese warship in the Pacific. Ansel Elgort, currently shooting the West Side Story remake for Steven Spielberg, is set to star as JFK, and will be producing the project alongside Brookside Artist Management’s Emily Gerson Saines. Mayday 109 made the 2015 Black List, as well as The Hit List, and The Young & Hungry List.
Most recently Franco and Kilgore sold a pitch to FX Networks titled The Fall of the House of FIFA, a ten-episode event series that pulls back the curtain on the FIFA scandal’s World Cup host country-bidding process of 2018 (set in Russia) and 2022 (to be held in Qatar) – which involved millions of dollars in bribes, that would ultimately net its host countries billions of dollars in revenue. This event corrupted not only several World Cups but also the geopolitical stability of the countries that bid for them. Flame Ventures’ Tony Krantz is set to produce along with Franco & Kilgore. Peter Landesman is set to direct and produce as well. ITV Studios America will be co-financing with FX Networks.
Franco and Kilgore are repped by Verve and attorney Ryan Goodell of Morris Yorn Barnes Levine Krintzman Rubenstein Kohner & Gellman.
Source: Read Full Article
