WB picks 'Rose'

Studio nabs rights to Morrell's book

By DAVE MCNARY, DIANE GARRETT

Warner Bros. has sleuthed out bigscreen rights to David Morrell’s “The Brotherhood of the Rose,” an espionage tome previously developed into an NBC mini in the late 1980s.

Basil Iwanyk is producing for Thunder Road.

Story centers on two orphans raised by a CIA operative to be assassins, only to become targets themselves. Tome was first published in 1984, with the NBC mini following five years later. Two-parter starred Robert Mitchum, Peter Strauss and Connie Sellecca.

Morrell also penned “First Blood,” the novel that introduced John Rambo, the character Sylvester Stallone made famous on the bigscreen.

Iwanyk, a former Warner production exec, has several other remakes on his development roster, including “Spies Like Us,” “Sharky’s Machine” and “Clash of the Titans.”