“Casino Royale” director Martin Campbell is in talks to direct “Alpha” for Paramount and Parkes/MacDonald, multiple individuals with knowledge of the deal told TheWrap.
Written by Scott Frank and with previous drafts by David Benioff, Graham Roland and Carl Ellsworth, the script follows a Navy Seal sent to South America to train dogs for combat service.
The handler teaching him how to train the canines is captured, leaving the Seal with the dogs. When he finds out the handler is still alive, he and the dogs goes back to South America to save him.
The studio and Parkes/MacDonald, which is producing the project, worked on the script for some time and settled on one they liked in March.
Though some of the individuals cautioned that Campbell's deal was not done, two said that Campbell and Parkes/MacDonald are putting together a visual presentation to get the movie greenlit. That would indicate he's doing it.
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Parkes/MacDonald made two big hits for different studios in 2012 — “Flight” (Paramount) and “Men in Black 3” (Sony) — while Campbell has a strong track record making humanistic action fare. He has directed two James Bond movies, “Casino Royale” and “GoldenEye,” and the two “Zorro” movies.