According to Variety, "Lemony Snicket" director Brad Silberling is about to become a very busy filmmaker. He’ll helm a historical drama for New Line, an indie flick with Morgan Freeman, and a mysterious one called "Juno."
"Brad Silberling will direct "The Crusaders," a New Line drama about the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, with Terrence Howard starring as Thurgood Marshall.
But first Silberling will direct Morgan Freeman and Paz Vega in "Ten Items or Less," an indie drama based on his own script.
Director will follow "Ten Items" by directing the Mandate-financed drama "Juno" and then hopes to start production on "Crusaders" in late 2006, depending on Howard’s schedule.
Directing three films in one year is daunting, but a refreshing break for Silberling after spending two years to create the world of "Lemony Snicket."
Both "Ten Items" and "Juno" have budgets of less than $10 million and brief shooting schedules. New Line is in the early stages of planning the "Crusaders" shoot.
Silberling wrote "Ten Items" before making "Snicket." Vega currently is in negotiations, and they are on track for a January start. William Morris packaged the project.
"It’s about a celebrity who gets lost in an L.A. minority community while researching a role, and how a chance meeting with a grocery checkout worker helps both of them turn their lives around," Silberling said. "This came to me as I saw how many people in my community get stopped in their tracks by success, which creates fear."
"The Crusaders" was scripted by "West Wing" scribes Paul Redford and Lawrence O’Donnell and is based on the Jack Greenberg memoir "Crusaders in the Courts." It’s the David vs. Goliath case in which the author and Marshall led the NAACP to win a case that helped end segregation in schools. Marshall, of course, would eventually become the first African-American Supreme Court justice."
