Peter Pan Origin Pitch Takes Flight With Channing Tatum Attached (Exclusive)

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Channing Tatum

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Actor Channing Tatum, screenwriter Billy Ray and producer Joe Roth are seeking to tell the origin of Peter Pan with a pitch package that went out to studios Tuesday. Not much is known in the way of details, but the project carries the title Pan.

Tatum, his producing partner Reid Carolin and Eric Bromberg came up with the idea and brought it to Ray, Roth and Roth Films' Palak Patel. The five of them further developed the idea into the pitch currenlty being heard around town.

The pitch is the latest in the newest Hollywood development trend that has execs moving beyond comic books and toys and on to classic literature reading lists -- and no one is more at the forefront of this lit movement than Roth.

Roth produced last year’s billion-dollar grossing adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, is in the casting stages of Oz, the Great and Powerful, which is set up at Disney with James Franco and Mila Kunis starring, and has Snow White and the Huntsman set up at Universal with Kristen Stewart and Charlize Theron in the leads.

Roth isn’t alone in raiding the public domain. Warner Bros. has Red Riding Hood coming out March 11, and the studio just set Kieran and Michele Mulroney to write a script tackling Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

While no one has made any bids just yet, the Peter Pan package is attractive and generating strong interest.

Ray, who wrote and directed Shattered Glass and Breach, is one of the town’s more respected writers. Repped by CAA and Management 360, he recently wrote the adaptation of The Hunger Games for Lionsgate, is adapting Secreto as a directing vehicle, and has the Richard Phillips/Somali pirates story in development at Columbia.

Repped by UTA and Management 360, Tatum most recently starred in The Eagle, The Dilemma and Dear John. He has Haywire, The Vow and The Son of No One awaiting release.