1984 Private Defense Contractors and Ruby Films have set South Korean helmer Park Chan-wook ("Oldboy") to direct crime drama "Corsica 72" from a Black List script by "Skyfall" scribes Neal Purvis and Robert Wade.
Producers will include company principals Adi Shankar and Spencer Silna at 1984 Private Defense Contractors, which acquired the project; and Alison Owen and Paul Trijbits of Ruby Films. Purvis and Wade, who have written five James Bond films including Sam Mendes' latest installment, will also serve as producers.
Based on a true story, period pic follows two best friends who live on the small island of Corsica where they choose different paths in life -- one as an honest working man, the other as a gangster -- and feud over a woman who comes between them.
In addition to appearing on the 2009 Black List, script placed second on the 2009 Brit List. Park's fellow international filmmakers Oliver Hirschbiegel ("Downfall") and Luca Guadagnino ("I Am Love") were previously attached to direct "Corsica 72," and stars such as Andrew Garfield and Gemma Arterton have circled past incarnations. Project is gaining steam at Hollywood's tenpercenteries as agents scramble to get their top under-30 clients in the casting mix.
Having wrapped his English-language debut "Stoker" for Fox Searchlight, Park recently agreed to direct S. Craig Zahler's Black List oater "The Brigands of Rattleborge" for Red Granite Pictures and Mythology Entertainment. That ultra-violent pic necessitates the casting of a major star, so while "Corsica" has no start date yet, it is expected to lense before "Brigands."
"Having spent the majority of my life in Southeast Asia I have been a fan of director Park my whole life," Shankar said. "Where I'm from it doesn't get any better than Park Chan-wook."
The WME-repped Park previously directed the "Vengeance" trilogy, which includes "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance," "Lady Vengeance," and "Oldboy." Fox Searchlight will give "Stoker" a platform release on March 1, 2013.
1984, which recently co-financed Joe Carnahan's "The Grey" and Andrew Dominik's upcoming Brad Pitt-starrer "Killing Them Softly," recently tapped Dutch Southern to write an all-female riff on the star-studded "Expendables" franchise.
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