Movie News: Magdalena attaches writer and director

GALE ANNE HURD’S VALHALLA MOTION PICTURES, PLATINUM STUDIOS AND TOP COW PRODUCTIONS HAVE ATTACHED RYUHEI KITAMURA TO DIRECT AND HOLLY BRIX TO WRITE “MAGDALENA”


Gale Anne Hurd’s Valhalla Motion Pictures and Platinum Studios, Inc. (OTCBB: PDOS), an entertainment company that controls an international library of more than 5,600 comic book characters which it adapts, produces and licenses for all forms of media and Top Cow Productions, an entertainment company specializing in building intellectual properties through comic book and graphic novel publication, have attached Ryuhei Kitamura to direct and Holly Brix to write the feature film “Magdalena” based on Top Cow’s comic book character “Magdalena.”



Kitamura previously directed “Midnight Meat Train” for Lionsgate and Lakeshore Entertainment, and he has directed numerous Japanese films including “Godzilla: Final Wars,” “Love Death,” “Sky High” and “Azumi” among many others.



“Brix previously wrote “The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations” released in January by Lionsgate and After Dark Films, adapted thriller “The Lost Girls” for MTV Films with Michelle Manning producing, rewrote “Smooth Operator” at Warner Bros for Jerry Weintraub Productions, and wrote “Mile Zero” set up at Phoenix Pictures with Marcel Langenegger directing and Milla Jovovich starring.



Gale Anne Hurd and Platinum Studios’ Chairman and CEO Scott Mitchell Rosenberg are set to produce. Top Cow’s CEO Marc Silvestri (“Witchblade,” “Darkness”) would serve as executive producer as would former Universal Pictures senior executive Randy Greenberg of The Greenberg Group, who helped negotiate the deal. Matt Hawkins, President of Top Cow Productions, is set to co-produce.



“Both Kitamura and Brix bring very unique visions to ‘Magdalena,’” said Hurd. “Kitamura’s visual style coupled with Brix imaginative narrative will truly make ‘Magdalena’ a compelling film on screen” added Hurd.



“We have wanted to work with Kitamura for some time and his appetite for the material is infectious,” said Rosenberg. “Brix has been on our radar, and we are thrilled that she has agreed to be a part of this project.”


“Magdalena is a very complex but visually stunning world and we believe that Kitamura and Brix are the right talents to bring this to life” said Silvestri.

Gale Anne Hurd and Valhalla Motion Pictures most recently produced the blockbuster feature The Incredible Hulk for Marvel Studios and Universal Pictures and Punisher: War Zone for Lionsgate and Sony Pictures Entertainment. Hurd has produced more than two dozen feature films that have generated billions of dollars of revenue. Her other credits include The Terminator, Aliens, Armageddon, Aeon Flux, The Punisher, Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines among others. Hurd is also producer of the feature film “The Boston Stranglers” to be directed by Brian De Palma. She is executive producer of the upcoming Lifetime Movie Network project “The Wronged Man” starring Julia Ormond for Sony Pictures Television which premieres in November 2009.

Platinum Studios’ film and TV division is developing “Cowboys & Aliens” with producers Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer and DreamWorks, Universal Pictures, Imagine Entertainment and Kurtzman/Orci (the writing team behind the “Transformers” franchise and the resurrected “Star Trek” franchise). In addition, Platinum is developing with “Harry Potter” producer David Heyman, “Unique” at Walt Disney Pictures, “The Witchblade” with “Wanted” executive producer Marc Silvestri, Top Cow Productions, Inc. and Arclight Films, “Atlantis Rising” with DreamWorks, Kurtzman/Orci and director Len Wiseman (“Underworld” and “Live Free and Die Hard”) , and an untitled project at Sony Pictures Animation.

Top Cow turned Wanted, an award winning series created by Mark Millar and JG Jones and published by Top Cow from 2003-2005, into a $340 million plus worldwide 2008 blockbuster directed by Timur Bekmambetov and starring James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie from which Warner Brothers Interactive released a top selling video game in March 2009. Their hit comic book series Witchblade was a live action TNT series from 2000 to 2002 and an award winning 24 episode anime series in Japan that were both released last year on DVD worldwide. 2K Games, Starbreeze Studios and Top Cow turned the Darkness into a million plus selling video game in July 2007 with a planned sequel in development.