Col rushes to 'Delilah' with hurricane force

Pogue combines prison escape, disaster genres in project

By MICHAEL FLEMING

As Columbia Pictures moves closer toward a start date on John Pogue's script "Man With a Football," the studio has made a high-six- against mid-seven-figure deal for "Delilah," his next action script. John Baldecchi will produce.

"Delilah" takes its name from a Class Five hurricane that creates more than the usual mayhem as prisoners riot when they are being ferried to safety. A small-town deputy finds himself confronting the worst in human nature and mother nature by going up against hostage-holding hardened cons. Col's Amy Baer, Matt Tolmach and Doug Belgrad will supervise. Dave Zerr and Pogue will also have producing credits.

"I'd always wanted to marry the prison escape genre with a disaster movie," Pogue said. "The prisoners riot and become the equivalent of police in this evacuated town. One guy goes against the hurricane and these men to free hostages."

Though Pogue is adapting the Morgan Carver sci-fi book "Altared Carbon" for Joel Silver and Warner Bros., he is best known for scripting "Man With a Football," a well-regarded drama whose title refers to the man who's handcuffed to a case bearing the nuclear launch codes to be used by the president. Pogue set the project at Warner Bros. and Morgan Creek but bought it back through the Writers Guild reversion clause in which writers can reclaim dormant projects. He set it at Col, where Robert Schwentke has agreed to direct it. Pogue was repped in the "Delilah" deal by Genesis and the Firm.

Baldecchi, who has a first-look deal at Col, bought the project from Hong Kong, where he is shooting "Ultraviolet," a Sony/Screen Gems action film being directed by Kurt Wimmer.