Benjamin Bratt joins Snitch

variety.com

By Jeff Sneider

“Private Practice” star Benjamin Bratt has signed on to join Dwayne Johnson in Ric Roman Waugh’s action thriller “Snitch.”Pic, which started production this week in Shreveport, La., is a co-production between Exclusive Media Group, Participant Media and Imagenation Abu Dhabi that will be released in the U.S. by Summit Entertainment.

Inspired by true events, “Snitch” stars Johnson as a father forced to become an informant for the DEA to reduce his falsely accused son’s 10-year jail sentence. Bratt portrays a major player in the Mexican drug trade exposed by protag’s amateur undercover work, which escalates the situation.

Susan Sarandon co-stars alongside Barry Pepper, Jon Bernthal, Melina Kanakaredes, Michael K. Williams, Rafi Gavron and Nadine Velazquez.

Johnson will produce with Dany Garcia and David Fanning, as well as Exclusive, which is co-financing with Participant and Imagenation Abu Dhabi. Waugh adapted the screenplay from an original script by Justin Haythe (“Revolutionary Road”), who will exec produce with Becki Cross Trujillo, as well as Exclusive and Participant Media.

“Snitch,” which shoots in Shreveport until Jan. 19, is currently slated for theatrical release in the first quarter of 2013.

Bratt is no stranger to films about the drug trade, having played a drug kingpin in Steven Soderbergh’s “Traffic.” He’s repped by WME and D/F Management.

Contact Jeff Sneider at         jeff.sneider@variety.com

Dwayne Johnson feeling Bay’s ‘Pain’

variety.com

By Jeff Sneider

After a decade in development, Michael Bay’s “Pain and Gain,” a low-budget (by his standards) dark comedy about bodybuilders, is finally moving forward, as Dwayne Johnson is in early talks to topline the long-gestating pic.

Bay has been looking to cast Johnson and his “The Other Guys” co-star Mark Wahlberg as the two steroid-abusing leads, and recently discussed the film with both thesps. While insiders caution that it’s still early in the casting process, sources close to Wahlberg have indicated that his busy schedule is expected to keep him from pursuing Bay’s passion project, for which Johnson remains a frontrunner.

Based on a Miami New Times article from 1999, “Pain and Gain” will follow a pair of Florida bodybuilders who get caught up in an extortion ring and a kidnapping scheme that goes terribly wrong.

“Captain America” scribes Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely wrote the original script and have compared its tone to the Coen brothers’ “Fargo,” which was also based on a true crime story.

Long-gestating dark comedy, which is said to carry a modest $20 million price tag and does not yet have an official greenlight, is set up at Paramount and will be produced by Bay and Donald De Line, who has been involved with the project since 2001.

Johnson has been working non-stop since helping to usher “Fast Five” to the highest gross in Universal’s “Fast and Furious” franchise. With “Pain and Gain” expected to start production in the spring, Johnson would be able to squeeze the film in before returning for the sixth and seventh entries in “Fast” series, which Universal would ideally like to shoot back-to-back beginning next year. Johnson, who returns to family fare with “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” Feb. 10, recently wrapped “G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation” and will soon begin filming Ric Roman Waugh’s action thriller “Snitch.”

Several projects are in contention for Wahlberg’s next gig, including Universal’s “2 Guns” and Adam McKay’s football comedy “Three Mississippi.” In recent years, Wahlberg has mixed comedies such as “The Other Guys” and “Date Night” in between dramatic turns in “The Fighter” and “The Lovely Bones.”

Contact Jeff Sneider at         jeff.sneider@variety.com

New Line is planning for Journey 3

EXCLUSIVE

“Journey 2” doesn’t hit theaters until Feb. 10, but the movie tested well over the weekend, and New Line has attached the film’s team to “Journey 3” – if there is such a movie – TheWrap has learned.

Director Brad Peyton, writers Brian Gunn, and Mark Gunn and producers Beau Flynn, Charlotte Huggins and Tripp Vinson are attached to the third installment in the franchise.

The first of the “Journey” films, the 2008 “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” grossed nearly $102 million domestically and $242 million worldwide on a $60 million budget.

That movie starred Brendan Fraser and Josh Hutcherson. Eric Brevig directed.

The second, the 3D “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” stars Hutcherson, Dwayne Johnson and Vanessa Hudgens.

It is unclear whether they will return for a third “Journey” film, but TheWrap has learned that the studio would like to have the cast, as well as the director, writers and producers, back for a possible third “Journey.”

The first movie was based on Jules Verne’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth.” The second is based on his “Mysterious Island.”

thewrap.com