Screen Talk: Dead men who try to flee the past

Tinseltown Insider

Diego Boneta (pictured) and Jackson Rathbone have signed to star in the thriller The Dead Men (Getty Images)

Diego Boneta (pictured) and Jackson Rathbone have signed to star in the thriller The Dead Men. The movie marks the debut feature of Kirk Sullivan, who recently left his job as Joel Silver's assistant. The script centres on an American running from his past, who joins a group of young radicals only to discover a centuries-old spiritual battle.

Assayas goes on location in the US

Olivier Assayas will direct the thriller Hubris. The plot, based on a true story from an article by Hillel Levin follows a crew of thieves led by John Mendell who rob a pawn shop and discover it to be a front for the most brutal crime boss in Chicago history. It will be the French director's first American outing.

Pike is caught in a blind-date trap

Rosamund Pike, Shiloh Fernandez and Nick Nolte are set to star in Return to Sender, a psychological thriller directed by Fouad Mikati. Written by Patricia Beauchamp and Joe Gossett, it tells the tale of a nurse who goes on a blind date with a man who turns out not to be who he says he is, and so changes her life.

Crime does pay for Zac Efron

Zac Efron is attached to star in Narc, a true-crime project described as a college-set Donnie Brasco. It centres on a student caught with cocaine who becomes an undercover informant for the police after doing a deal to avoid jail time. The story was discovered by producer Doug Banker who brought it to Fox.

Tremain strikes gold with a film

Rose Tremain's novel The Colour is heading for the big screen. Tremain will debut as a screenplay writer with the film, which will be directed by Peter Webber and will shoot in New Zealand's South Island in 2014. Set in the gold rush of the 1860s, the story charts the fortunes of newly wed immigrants Joseph and Harriet Blackstone.

No role for Jean in Timecop two

Universal is backing a remake of Timecop, the 1994 Jean-Claude Van Damme time-travel action movie. The original was set in a near future where time travel is regulated by a police force and featured the “Muscles from Brussels”. The studio now wants the whole thing re-imagined; Van Damme is not involved.