Action projects have been given a higher priority at Warner Bros., and one of the projects heating up right now is Line of Sight.
Peter O’Brien has been hired to work on the project, which Warner initially picked up in March as a spec written by F. Scott Frazier for Silver Pictures, where Joel Silver and Andrew Rona are producing.
The idea, concocted by Silver Picture’s Alex Heineman (who also exec produces), centers on an elite commando squad transporting cargo while dealing with a global threat.
O’Brien is best known for writing the 2008 Black List script Unlocked, which landed at Warners last year with Lorenzo di Bonaventura as one of the producers. That led him to working on Paramount’s Robert Ludlum thriller The Chancellor Manuscript, which Marc Forster is attached to direct, and a gig penning The Jury. The latter is Fox 2000’s adaptation of British mini-series created by Peter Morgan that is being produced by Forster, Brad Simpson, Guymon Cassidy and Quentin Curtis.
But not as well known but perhaps most pertinent is that O’Brien, repped by Original Artists and Brillstein Entertainment Partners, wrote the story for Halo: Reach, the Xbox 360 video game that grossed over $200 million on its opening day and was called the best Halo game by gaming publications. Halo: Reach also told the story of an elite commando squad, albeit in a sci-fi setting, a similarity that did not go unnoticed by Warner execs.
Silver is in post on Sherlock Holmes and the Todd Phillips-produced found footage comedy Project X.
Action projects have bubbled up to the top of the pile at the studio who, according to insiders, is seeking to replicate the success of Universal’s Fast Five, which successfully revitalized a franchise.
