There’s been a bunch of pre-holiday bidding wars, the latest one is 20th Studios buying Kevin McMullin’s short story “BOMB”, an action thriller that Deadline describes as having “franchise potential and a killer role for a young actor”.
None other than Ridley Scott is attached to direct, with his Scott Free producing. McMullin will write the script. This was a hot commodity as a whopping ten bidders, including Apple, Netflix, Sony and Warner Brothers, we’re vying for the film rights.
Now, don’t worry, Scott is still set to shoot his adaptation of Craig S. Zahler’s “Wraiths of the Broken Land” in March. “BOMB” would come a ways down the line, since it has to be scripted and developed. Here’s the official synopsis:
Frankie Ippolito is a hostage negotiator called into duty the night before his wedding in London. A man who has parked himself in a construction site in Piccadilly Circus is standing on a newly uncovered, unexploded bomb from WWII. He tells local law enforcement he will only speak with Frankie and this sets off a chain of events, where Frankie is drawn into an overnight struggle to stop the bomber with whom he has a past.
The short story is being described as a template for an action/thriller in the vein of “Dog Day Afternoon” and “Speed”. It does sound like a smaller-scaled film for Scott who just turned 86 and has been filming epic after epic these last few years. He’s currently finishing up production on “Gladiator 2” in Morocco.