Posted: Sun., May 4, 2008, 9:00pm PT

Warner digs 'The Ditch'

Studio picks up script from Sascha Penn

Sascha Penn
Penn

Warner Bros. has picked up "The Ditch," an action spec script from prolific musicvid and documentary producer Sascha Penn.

Set in the future, a super maximum-security prison has been constructed on Jupiter's moon where Earth's worst criminals are incarcerated. When a prison guard's family is taken hostage, he is coerced into helping the facility's most notorious terrorist, a man who was scheduled to be executed that day, escape.

Penn is most known for having produced Dave Chappelle's docu "Block Party" and Peter Bogdanovich's recently released "Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers" docu.

"The Ditch" is his first spec sale; he's adapting the German pic "Antibodies" for Gold Circle, and has sold TV pilots to NBC and ABC Family.

Matt Berenson ("Daddy Day Care") and Madhouse Entertainment's Adam Kolbrenner and Robyn Meisinger will produce.

Madhouse is producing "Town Creek" for Lionsgate and Gold Circle, written by Dave Kajganich, a client of the management-production shingle. It's also exec producing Sarah Thorp's "Bounty Hunter" for Sony and Neil Moritz, as well as "Forget About It" at Disney, from scribes Liz Kruger and Mark Shapiro, also clients.


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