Exclusive: Taylor Swift's Directorial Debut Gets a Rewrite at Searchlight

Happy Thursday, folks!

Yesterday, I’d heard that Warner Bros. and 20th Century Studios were the frontrunners for James Mangold’s moto-heist movie High Side starring Timothee Chalamet, but as it turned out, Paramount landed the hot package, wasting no time establishing itself as a player now that David Ellison has the reins. Consider it a warning shot from the incoming mogul…

Speaking of Ellison, he’s apparently keeping Ramsey Naito around as President of Paramount Animation, which will be kept separate from Skydance Animation, run by John Lasseter and Holly Edwards. Paramount Animation will focus on developing theatrical movies, while Skydance Animation will remain focused on fulfilling its output deal with Netflix.

That said, Naito is losing oversight of Nickelodeon TV Studios and Nickelodeon Animation Studio, which now fall under George Cheeks’ purview as Chair of TV Media, rather than Paramount Pictures co-chairs Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein. Thus, Naito and her team will focus on making animated movies for Paramount, as opposed to animated TV shows for Nickelodeon, which is the home of the SpongeBob franchise.

Elsewhere, unlike the A24 movie The Drama starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, which is bound for a 2026 release, I’m hearing that 20th Century Studios’ reboot of the 1992 thriller The Hand That Rocks the Cradle is being prepped for an October release on Hulu, where it should post strong viewership numbers. Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Maika Monroe star in the movie, which is well-timed for spooky season, and would’ve likely been a gamble in theaters.

Tonight, you’ll read about the scribe who has been tapped to rewrite Taylor Swift’s original screenplay for Searchlight, and speaking of scripts, I shared what I’ve heard about Matt Reeves and Mattson Tomlin’s screenplay for The Batman Part II.

Plus, there are items about Aubrey Plaza’s Heidi Fleiss biopic, Mel Gibson’s follow-up to The Passion of the Christ, the latest indie from writer-director Joe Swanberg, the action-comedy that lost Michael Bay, and the one that added Eddie Murphy, the two new movies starring Dave Bautista, and my thoughts on the trailer for Searchlight’s comedy Family Rental starring Brendan Fraser.

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