WB gets down and 'Dirty'

Scribe Rosenberg teams with 'Alias' duo for remake

By MICHAEL FLEMING, JOSEF ADALIAN

Warner Bros. will be contemporizing the Lee Marvin WWII actioner 'The Dirty Dozen.'

Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow Pictures will co-finance a remake of "The Dirty Dozen," the 1967 actioner that starred Lee Marvin as a major who conscripts twelve condemned soldier-prisoners for a dangerous mission in WWII.

Joel Silver will produce with Susan Downey.

In a seven-figure deal, the studio has set "Con Air" scribe Scott Rosenberg to team with "Alias" writer-producers Andre Nemec and Josh Appelbaum on a script that will contemporize the storyline.

Project came out of a conversation between Silver and WB exec veep Lynn Harris. When they both cited "Dirty Dozen" as the kind of mission movie they'd like to make, Harris discovered that WB owned the rights to the original, which was distributed by MGM.

Downey drafted the scribes after reading a remake the trio wrote of the 1986 daring-mission-pic "Let's Get Harry." That pic hasn't been made yet.

"Scott had been hesitant in the past to do a remake of a known title, but they all felt that a modern version could make for a high-testosterone, fun, big movie," Downey said. "We're giving this version a personal stake. The mission isn't about finding gold or weapons or blowing up a castle. There is a personal element to it."

Appelbaum and Nemec's relationship with Rosenberg goes back to their work as co-producers on Rosenberg's Showtime series "Going to California." The three are now teamed with Gary Fleder on the ABC drama pilot "October Road," which Fleder is directing.

WB's Harris will supervise production with Silver Pictures veep Navid McIlhargey and VRP's Dana Goldberg. VRP head Bruce Berman will exec produce with Steve Richards. WB will distribute worldwide, except for Greece, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia; VRP will handle those territories.

Silver Pictures' "V for Vendetta" bows on Friday, and the banner is in post on Hilary Swank starrer "The Reaping" and Nicole Kidman-Daniel Craig thriller "The Visiting."