Welcome to The One-Page Screenplay, the brass-fastener-obsoleting Movieline feature in which we ask some of our favorite screenwriters to produce a script that exists on a single page. (I then hand that unread script directly to my assistant, who compiles a four-word-long coverage report for me.) We're thrilled to report that today's offering, Messy Life, comes to us from the hugely talented team of Michael Brandt & Derek Haas -- the same Brandt & Hass who tamed the Bale in 3:10 to Yuma, and turned ballistics curvature into sheer visual poetry in Wanted. Enjoy. This is a good one.
The Official Bio:
Writers Michael Brandt and Derek Haas are the force behind such engaging, fast-paced, kinetic screenplays as 2008's blockbuster WANTED. Brandt and Haas' adaptation of the acclaimed graphic novel starred James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie and grossed $339 million worldwide.
Brandt and Haas will be adapting the novel THE THIRTEENTH HOUR for New Line Cinema with Michael DeLuca producing. The story follows a man falsely accused of brutally murdering his wife who is given an opportunity to go back in time, in one hour increments for 12 hours, to find and stop his wife's killer before it's too late.
Brandt and Haas also adapted THE MATARESE CIRCLE, based on Robert Ludlum's novel, for MGM with Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Nick Wechsler producing. Denzel Washington and Tom Cruise are attached to star and David Cronenberg will direct.
Brandt and Haas first met at Baylor University in 1989, where they attended both undergrad and graduate school. At Baylor, Brandt received an MA in Film and Haas graduated with an MA in English Literature. The duo started writing screenplays together in the mid 1990s.
Their first produced work, Universal's 2 FAST 2 FURIOUS, has amassed over $236M in worldwide box office. In September 2007, Brandt and Haas wrote film 3:10 TO YUMA, starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, directed by James Mangold.
The One-Page Screenplay: