Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Update about the Entourage movie

Examiner posted a new article about the status of the upcoming Entourage movie.

Script for 'Entourage' movie is nearly complete

“Entourage” is coming back. Last year the enormously popular HBO series ended its eighth and final season with a Hollywood cliffhanger that easily set up the movie “Entourage” creator Doug Ellin is officially writing. As reported by Deadline today, September 12, 2012, Ellin is on page 110 of his screenplay and “gonna finish by Sunday (I pray).”

Ellin states that no one wants to see the movie green lighted by HBO more than the series’ WME packaging agent Ari Emanuel – the inspiration for Ari Gold – and executive producers Mark Wahlberg and Steven Levinson. Ellin jokingly explained that Wahlberg keeps promising “to kill me if I don’t write faster. Every time I see him, Mark says, ‘I’ve made 5 movies this year. Getgoing!”

Ellin took a bit of time off after spending a decade on the TV series that premiered on HBO in 2004. In the meantime, Ellin is under an overall contract with HBO and continued to develop for the network. He created an HBO comedy pilot starring Ed Burns that wasn’t picked up. Ellin and his producing partner Jim Lefkowitz also developed another HBO project, the boxing drama “Da Brick,” with Spike Lee and Mike Tyson and John Ridley. Ellin told Deadline that when he got down to writing the “Entourage” screenplay, he felt “renewed momentum”.

He says his script starts about 6 months after the TV series leaves off. “There are interesting developments about Ari as a studio head, and that’s still the first page for me. But foremost is the friendship between the guys who are still hanging out and going to fun parties, and it continues with the same characters.” Ellin has kept in touch with all the key cast members: Jeremy Piven (“Ari”), Adrian Grenier (“Vince”), Kevin Dillon (“Drama”), and especially Kevin Connolly (“E”) and Jerry Ferrara (Turtle”) who are apparently two of Ellin’s closest friends. The “Entourage” actors have been getting other gigs while HBO has been working with Ellin on developing the script.

HBO heads Richard Plepler and Michael Lombardo have clarified that thus far that they have only heard “a very general pitch” and need to read the completed script before moving forward. However, Ellin is optimistic, saying, “I’m excited. I feel a lot of positive energy,” he tells me. “Everywhere I go, people ask me, ‘Where’s the movie?’”

Deadline explains that the majority of “Entourage” fans want an R-rated movie filled with women, nudity, and cameos by Hollywood bigwigs as well as strong plotting and character arcs. Hopefully, Ellin has exceeded expectations, though Deadline also recalls its previous comment after the conclusion of the show, “Goodbye Entourage as a TV series. Now just don’t come back as an embarrassingly lame movie.

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