Development hell is a bitch of a thing, really. It affects not only us mere mortals who are waiting for the film, but especially the Hollywood elite who are trying to get it to us. We’ve suffered through it on projects like Superman Returns and Green Hornet. For instance, Jerry Bruckheimer has spent a dozen years trying to develop Apaches, a novel by Lorenzo Carcaterra that revolves around a group of retired New York
City cops who form a renegade unit to bring down the most vicious
criminals in Gotham. Carcaterra, who’s written and produced episodes of Law and Order, and
whose books include “Sleepers,” followed up “Apaches” with the sequel
novel “Chasers,” published by Ballantine in 2007.
Bruckheimer’s latest stab at getting the project off the ground involves hiring a couple of new writers, Sean O’Keefe and Will Staples. O’Keefe and Staples got the gig off the buzz being generated by two of their scripts, World’s Most Wanted and The Cruelest Miles. Neal Moritz is shepherding the former for Universal and Mark Johnson is tackling the latter for Walden Media. Past writers on the project include Marshall Todd (“Bad Boys II”), John Ridley, John Fusco (“The Forbidden Kingdom”) and David Klass (“Walking Tall”). Touchstone is eying the project as a potential franchise.