Sony arms 'Minutemen'

Moritz's Original will produce pic

By NICOLE LAPORTE

Sony has bought the pitch "Minutemen" by scribes Brandon Camp and Mike Thompson for Neal Moritz's Original Film shingle to produce. Deal was for high six figures against low seven figures.

In the pic, an axis of enemies attack America for its perceived imperialism, forcing the inhabitants of an unassuming quarry town to thwart the invading armies' plan to destroy the nation's command center.

Moritz is producing and Ori Marmur, who brought the project to Original, is exec producing along with Camp and Thompson.

Sony's Sam Dickerman is overseeing.

The "Fast and the Furious" producer said he wanted to get into business with Camp and Thompson after he read their script "Steinbeck's Point of View," a project that's gaining momentum with producer Mark Johnson. Moritz set up a general meeting with the scribes and "Minutemen" -- a high-concept action pic that Moritz describes as "low-tech vs. high-tech" -- came out of it.

"It's really a story of heroism," Thompson told Daily Variety. "In these tenuous times of international strife, we were motivated to tell an old-fashioned Everyman's tale of American ingenuity and heroism."

Camp added: "It's an underdog tale about people that society expects very little from and how they rise to ultimately live up to their potential."

In addition to "Steinbeck's Point of View," Camp and Thompson also sold the spec "911" to Sony for producer Mark Gordon.

Moritz recently wrapped Sony's "Gridiron Gang," starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. He's currently filming Universal's "The Fast and the Furious 3: Tokyo Drift."