(MENAFN- Arab Times) Melisa Wallack has been tapped to write the screenplay for "King of Kings," the story of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran. Gateway Films is backing the picture and is currently lining up a director. In Wallack, the studio gets an Oscar-nominated writer, whose credits include "Dallas Buyers Club" and "Mirror Mirror." She is currently working with "Dallas Buyers Club" director Jean-Marc Vallee on "Janis Joplin: Get it While You Can" and is writing "Dancing With Myself" for Warner Bros.
The film looks at the Shah's often fraught relationship with the United States, and documents the mistakes that set the stage for the Iranian revolution and the rise of religious leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Terry Stone, who wrote a treatment of "King of Kings," will produce on behalf of Gateway Films, along with executive producer Chris Howard.
"The Shah of Iran is one of history's most polarizing figures - once considered amongst the most powerful and reviled figures on the planet," Stone said in a statement. "Melisa is a brilliant writer as evidence by 'Dallas Buyers Club' and will provide a timely examination of the legacy of foreign interventionism, and the consequences of the Shah's reign and eventual downfall."
Alan Wenkus, a writer and co-exec producer on "Straight Outta Compton," is on board to adapt Iraqi War drama "Code Name: Johnny Walker" for 28 Entertainment.
Producers are meeting with buyers about the project at the Toronto Film Festival. 28 Entertainment acquired the movie rights to the book early last year, shortly after publication by William Morrow.
"Code Name: Johnny Walker," the account of a Navy SEAL translator in Iraq, has been on The New York Times bestseller list. The book is written by the Iraqi translator under the pseudonym "Johnny Walker" and co-written by Jim DeFelice, co-author of "American Sniper."
Producers are 28 Entertainment's Jay Hoffman, Brian A. Hoffman and Brett Harrison.
The Iraqi translator was welcomed by the SEALs into their tight-knit ranks during the American invasion and the insurgency that followed. The translator took part in more than 1,000 missions over a six-year period.
Wenkus has story credit on "Straight Outta Compton" along with S. Leigh Savidge and Andrea Berloff.
Janet McTeer, Eddie Marsan, and Ben Daniels have been added to the cast of "The Kaiser's Last Kiss." They join a cast that includes Lily James ("Cinderella"), above, Jai Courtney ("Suicide Squad") and Christopher Plummer as Kaiser Wilhelm II.
The fictitious look at the former German leader's last days finds the man who helped ignite World War I exiled in the Netherlands as a new global battle rages. Following Germany's 1940 invasion of Holland, the Kaiser becomes embroiled in an elaborate work of espionage by the Dutch resistance.
In addition to the new cast members, Silver Reel has come on board to finance the picture. Film House Germany's Egoli Tossell Film put the picture together.
Adele Exarchopoulos ("Blue Is the Warmest Color") will star opposite Matthias Schoenaerts in Michael R. Roskam's "The Faithful," a noirish romance thriller set against the backdrop of crime gangs in Brussels.
Wild Bunch has come on board to take international sales while Pathe will handle distribution in France. Pierre-Ange Le Pogam's Stone Angels is producing with Bart Van Langendonck's Savage Films, who produced Belgian helmer's Oscar-nominated "Bullhead."
Although the plot of the film remains under wraps, the glamorous onscreen couple formed by Exarchopoulos and Schoenaerts and the track-record of Roskam will likely spark buyers' anticipation for the project, which will start shooting next year.
"The Faithful" is penned by Thomas Bidegain ("A Prophet") and Noe Debre, the screenwriters behind Jacques Audiard's Palme-d'Or winning "Dheepan." Debre's recent credits include "The Cowboys," which marks Bidegain's directorial debut and screens in Toronto.
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