UPCOMING PROJECTS
"Manhunt"
LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Movie hero Harrison Ford is to play a war hero hunting for Abraham Lincoln's
assassin in a new American Civil War thriller, the industry press said.
"Raiders of the Lost Ark" star Ford, 63, will take on the role of Colonel Everton Conger
who is on the mysterious trail of John Wilkes Booth in the movie called "Manhunt," Daily Variety said.
The film will depict the days following Lincoln's assassination in a Washington theatre in 1865,
during which Conger and his New York Cavalry troops hunted for Booth for 12 days before finding him in a barn.
The movie is to be based on James Swanson's upcoming book "Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer,"
an account of the search for Booth, to be published in the United States in February by William Morrow.
"Manhunt" will be produced by Lawrence Bender, Mike Rich -- who also produced "The Rookie" and
"Finding Forrester" -- will pen the screenplay. No release date was immediately available.
New Keanu Reeves and Harrison Ford Projects
Variety Friday, January 16, 2004
Producers Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher, whose Along Came Polly opens today and Garden
State bows at Sundance, have closed development deals for projects involving Keanu Reeves
and Harrison Ford, reports Variety.
The Reeves project is a comedy based on an idea generated by the "Matrix" star. He'll play an
American who becomes a success in London and has to deal with the cultural differences. They've
set Michael Kalesniko to script the film.
The Ford project is a medical drama drawn from For His Sick Kid, a Geeta Anand book the studio
just acquired, about a man who finances a cure for a rare disease that is killing two of his
kids -- then has to fight to get them access to the drug. Judith Regan will publish the book.
Indiana Jones 4 on Hold Again, Awaiting New Script
The long-gestating reunion of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Harrison
Ford for a fourth "Indiana Jones" pic is on hold -- again -- as a new script
draft is commissioned.
Paramount had hoped to get into production on a fourth film in 2004 for a 2005
release. Frank Darabont had been brought in to script a concept the trio liked,
but apparently Lucas wasn't happy with the draft. They will now bring aboard
another screenwriter to rewrite Darabont's script.