Maguire
Solomon
Sony has acquired the Isaac Adamson novel "Tokyo Suckerpunch" to adapt into a feature Tobey Maguire will topline.
Studio has hired Ed Solomon to write the pic, to be produced by Maguire through Maguire Entertainment and Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher via their Columbia-based Red Wagon banner.
Novel's protag Billy Chaka writes a column that casts him as macho hero living in a surreal, amped-up Tokyo. When his book gets turned into a movie, Chaka flies to the city for the premiere and hates it enough to clash loudly with the director, who ends up murdered.
Solomon, who just adapted Roald Dahl novel "The BFG" for Paramount, has a strong franchise track record. He scripted "Men in Black," Sony's biggest grossing franchise until "Spider-Man" arrived. Solomon also wrote "Charlie's Angels" (with Ryan Rowe and John August) and "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" (with Chris Matheson), and he did extensive uncredited script work on "X-Men."
"Tokyo Suckerpunch" will be supervised by Red Wagon president Bobby Cohen, Maguire Entertainment's Mark Ross and Col execs Matt Tolmach and Rachel O'Connor.
Pic becomes another plum Sony project for Red Wagon, which opens "Bewitched" this summer and is about to start the Barry Sonnenfeld-directed Robin Williams starrer "RV." Wick and Fisher also produced the Sam Mendes-directed "Jarhead" for Universal. Maguire Entertainment has several films percolating, with Peter Hedges writing "Everything Changes" and David Auburn scripting "Blackbird."
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