Pressman signs Noyce for Bloodsport; lands Venice slot for Moth Diaries

Veteran producer Ed Pressman is in Cannes with news on three projects. Pressman has closed deals with Phillip Noyce to direct and Robert Mark Kamen to script a reinvention of iconic Jean Claude Van Damme actioner Bloodsport (1988).

Alberto Lensi is producing with Pressman the story will follow an American who goes to Brazil to recover from the violence he has experienced in Afghanistan who gets involved in a martial arts contest. Mark DiSalles is executive producing.

Mary Harron’s The Moth Diaries, which is currently in post-production, has been invited to the Venice Film Festival in September after festival director Marco Mueller saw a recent cut in New York. Sold internationally by Wild Bunch and domestically by Cinetic Media, the film stars Lily Cole and Sarah Bolger as girls caught in a web of jealousy and betrayal at an elite boarding school.

Kamen’s recent work includes the Transporter franchise, Taken, Bandidas and Kiss Of The Dragon for EuropaCorp, while Noyce’s last film was the Sony hit Salt starring Angelina Jolie.

Pressman is scheduled to start production on his reinvention of The Crow in January next year. The film, which is being financed by Relativity Media, is to be directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo with Bradley Cooper in negotiations to play the title character after he has shot Paradise Lost for Alex Proyas. Producers with Pressman on the film include Ryan Kavanaugh and Tucker Tooley of Relativity and Enrique Lopez of Apache Films, Madrid.