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New Projects: Chris Pratt gearing up for bootlegging drama ‘The Real McCoy’

New Projects: Chris Pratt gearing up for bootlegging drama ‘The Real McCoy’

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You might’ve used the expression “The Real McCoy” and not actually known where it came from. Colloquially it refers to something being authentic, or the real deal. In fact, if someone were to name their movie after it, you might presume it was just a romantic comedy.

Well, now super-mega-star Chris Pratt is set to star in a movie about where that expression originated. The Real McCoy is a bootlegging drama about the life of Bill McCoy, a famous rum-runner during Prohibition who, as an American sea captain, shipped and sold illegal liquor across the coast until his capture in 1923. According to urban legend, McCoy touted that his liquor was never “cut”, or watered down, thus the expression “The Real McCoy”. But McCoy is also credited with having essentially created the six pack in order to better carry and ship bottles of rum and whiskey.

Pratt is to play McCoy in a pitch by Bill Dubuque (The Judge). THR was first to report that the idea had landed at Universal following a heavy bidding war. The Real McCoy will be an action/adventure drama set in Prohibition Era.

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Damien Chazelle is one of the hottest new directors on the market. Having Whiplash win an Oscar for a veteran like J.K. Simmons and turning Miles Teller into a star is a good way to get people to want to work with you. Deadline reported this week that his next project will officially be La La Land, an old fashioned Hollywood musical and romance about a pianist and a budding actress. Originally, Teller was set to star alongside Emma Watson, not bad casting at all. Watson however dropped out for Beauty and the Beast, and Teller has also passed. But Deadline is reporting that an even hotter pair may be in talks to join the project, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. This would be the pair’s third project together, following their romantic sparks in Crazy. Stupid. Love. and then in Gangster Squad. At this point however, neither Gosling or Stone are confirmed, but they’d for sure make a great song and dance couple and both have classical, Old Hollywood charms.

On the same day that his show with Billy Crystal, The Comedians, debuts, a musical conceived by Josh Gad and Jeremy Garelick (The Wedding Ringer) has been picked up by Universal Pictures, Deadline reports. Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz, two Broadway and Hollywood musical legends of today, will produce the music and lyrics for the film.

Deadline reported Thursday that Sony Pictures has acquired the rights to Kelly Reichardt‘s next film following Night Moves. The untitled movie stars Kristen Stewart, Laura Dern, and Michelle Williams in a drama about several vignettes in the lives of small-town Montana residents. Reichardt just finished shooting the film there and has it planned for 2016.

HBO is prepping an original film based on the life of American attorney Anita Hill, with Kerry Washington in the starring role. The film is Confirmation, and THR reported Wednesday that Rick Famuyiwa, the breakout director of the Sundance hit Dope, will take on the project. Confirmation is based on a script by Erin Brockovich scribe Susannah Grant and details a 1991 trial involving sexual harassment.

Michael Mann‘s next film following Blackhat will be a biopic on the life of Enzo Ferrari. The source material comes from two scripts by Troy Kennedy Martin (The Italian Job) and David Reyfield (Out of Africa), now both merged together by Mann, and that are both based on the same 1991 Ferrari biography, Enzo Ferrari: The Man, The Cars, The Races. However, last week we mentioned in our Week in Review that Robert De Niro would be gearing up for his own Ferrari movie. This sadly is not related in any way, and Mann and De Niro will sadly not be reuniting…yet. Previously, Sydney Pollack was attached to direct a version of this story with Al Pacino to star back in 2004. Now Variety reports that this film will hopefully start shooting in early 2016.

Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla, more commonly known as the comedy duo SMOSH, are two of the most widely watched groups on YouTube, with over 30 million subscribers, largely among teenagers. They’ve now completed a movie, aptly titled SMOSH: The Movie, and it will premiere July 23 at the Vidcon fan convention in Anaheim, according to Deadline. The film is described as something like Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, in which the duo try to retrieve an embarrassing video before one of their high school crushes sees it.