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Brit playwright Michael Lesslie ("Prince of Denmark") has been enlisted to write the script for "Assassin's Creed," starring Michael Fassbender and based on the Ubisoft video game. Two-year-old Ubisoft Motion Pictures is developing the film with New Regency. The video game narrative centers on a bartender who is sent back in time to relive the fates of his ancestors, all of them assassins. - In 2011, fanatical Reddit commenter and Jeopardy winner James Erwin started an elaborate thread on whether a modern U.S. Marine infantry batallion could defeat the Roman empire. In October of that year, Warner Bros. optioned the rights to the series, "Rome, Sweet Rome." Now this Reddit-turned-studio project has found a writer in Brian Miller, the man behind found-footage sci-fi film "Apollo 18." Erwin reportedly turned in a script himself, but it was not to the studio's liking. - Warner Bros. is also developing a sci-fi version of.

Funnily enough, I just suffered through the found footage horror film Apollo 18 for the first time last weekend. Now the writer of that atrocious film has been hired to do a rewrite of a time travel film called Rome, Sweet Rome, a story based on an idea that started on the popular website Reddit. It sounds a bit silly, but the pitch from first-time screenwriter, author and Jepoardy champion James Erwin started from several posts on the site asking the question, "What if a unit of U.S. Marines are transported back in time and forced to do battle with Roman legions?" The answer is they get a motion picture deal at Warner Bros. Variety reports Brian Miller is rewriting the film from scratch since the first run by Erwin didn't seem like it was exactly what the studio wanted. This time, Miller's take (which is as fresh as...

The Internet is generally a place to discuss movies once they've already been made, but every now and then it can go in reverse. After a Reddit thread inspired writer James Erwin to write a spec screenplay called Rome, Sweet Rome, Warner Bros. picked up the rights to the film-- and now another screenwriter has been hired to help turn it into an actual film, where inevitably, it will be discussed at length on Reddit. According to Variety the studio has brought in Brian Miller, who is credited with the critically abhorred Apollo 18, to take another crack at Rome Sweet Rome. The story spurs from the simple question posed on Reddit: "What if a unit of U.S. Marines are transported back in time and forced to do battle with Roman legions?" But given that Miller is reportedly writing a brand new draft, without ever looking at Erwin's original,...

So let’s cut right to the chase. About a year and a half ago, James Erwin, an Iowa-based author, wrote an online science fiction story on Reddit, and it soon became very popular on the social media site. Now the story has a legit chance to become a Hollywood movie. Erwin’s story, “Rome, Sweet Rome,” was posted on Reddit over a year ago after a user on the site had proposed this random question: "Could I destroy the entire Roman Empire during the reign of Augustus if I traveled back in time with a modern U.S. Marine infantry battalion or Meu?” James Erwin didn’t simply respond to the question--instead, he wrote an entire story based around that premise, letting his imagination run wild, and continued to add to it thanks to other Reddit users’ encouragement. Eventually, producer Adam Kolbrenner of Madhouse Entertainment spotted the Reddit post,...

Ubisoft Motion Pictures and New Regency have hired acclaimed English playwright Michael Lesslie to pen the upcoming film version of the "Assassin's Creed" video game series.

A search is currently underway for a director on the project which Michael Fassbender will star in and produce.

Meanwhile, "Apollo 18" screenwriter Brian Miller has come onboard to rewrite James Erwin's original high-concept storyline for the time travel drama "Rome, Sweet Rome."

Inspired by a 2011 Reddit thread, the story asks what if a unit of U.S. Special Forces are transported back in time and forced to do battle with Roman legions. Joby Harold, Adam Kolbrenner, Gianni Nunnari and Tory Tunnell are attached to produce.

Finally, Randall Miller and Jody Savin are looking to develop a film about famed Colorado recording studio Caribou Records. Miller and Savin will write the script with Miller directing.

Caribou chief James William Guercio will work on...

A pair of sci-fi projects to keep an eye on for all you fans of sci-fi projects out there, both courtesy of Warner Bros. Up first is the time-travel “Rome, Sweet Rome”, which Warner Bros. is currently developing based on an post that first appeared on the social sharing site Reddit. The studio grabbed the pitch back in 2011 from writer James Erwin based on the question: What if a unit of U.S. Marines are transported back in time and forced to do battle with Roman legions? Well apparently Warner Bros. didn’t like the answer, because they’ve now set aside Erwin’s script and has hired screenwriter Brian Miller (“Apollo 18″) to take a crack at a new script … without ever having read Erwin’s script. Which, uh, must have meant the studio really, really didn’t like Erwin’s answer to the question that sold the movie.

Apollo 18 screenwriter Brian Miller has come aboard to write the screenplay for Rome Sweet Rome for Warner Bros.

The studio acquired a pitch in October 2011 from Iowa author and two-time Jeopardy! champion James Erwin back in October 2011. The pitch was based on his Reddit thread, which sought an answer to the following question, "What if a unit of U.S. Marines are transported back in time and forced to do battle with Roman legions?" James Erwin wrote a draft of the screenplay, but the studio wanted a fresh take, which is where Brian Miller comes in. The story has already been tweaked slightly, with the plot centering on a U.S. Special Forces team, instead of Marines.

Adam Kolbrenner is producing for Madhouse Entertainment, along with Hollywood Gang's Gianni Nunnari, and Safe House Pictures' Tory Tunnell and Joby Harold. No production schedule was given.

Warner Bros. is bringing on a new screenwriter to tweak a project that initially began as a series of posts on Reddit. Variety reports that Apollo 18 screenwriter Brian Miller has been tapped to rework the screenplay for Rome, Sweet Rome, which tells the story of a unit of U.S. armed forces that is transported back in time to battle Roman legions. The project actually first came to fruition on Reddit, where initial posts by James Erwin about the story came to the attention of Madhouse Entertainment’s Adam Kolbrenner who then brought the pitch to Warner Bros. where the studio purchased the pic. Erwin wrote an intial draft of the script, but apparently WB feels it needs “a fresh approach,” and has brought Miller in to write a new draft. Miller hasn’t seen that first draft of the script, and will be starting from scratch based on the simple yet intriguing logline.

Warner Bros. is moving ahead with plans for a time travel tale inspired by a 2011 Reddit thread. Variety brings word that Apollo 18 screenwriter Brian Miller will rewrite the original concept by James Erwin. His high concept plot simply asked, "What if a unit of U.S. Marines are transported back in time and forced to do battle with Roman legions?" The trade notes that some changes to Erwin's original concept have already occurred and that the film's band of military heroes will now be comprised of a Special Forces team rather than Marines specifically. Joby Harold, Adam Kolbrenner, Gianni Nunnari and Tory Tunnell are attached to produce with Robyn Meisinger executive producing.

In October 2011, James Erwin answered a Reddit post with a short story that scored him a production deal. Although the wheels are still turning on Rome Sweet Rome (as in, it hasn’t been made yet), another Redditor has scored a development deal by using the site to post up a short horror tale. Daily Dot has the story of Dathan Auerbach, a philosophy teacher who earned a lot of fans after posting “Footsteps” to the site and earned even more when the success prompted him to post “Balloons” on the scary story subreddit called /nosleep. The second story won the monthly writing contest in October and propelled him to keep writing and posting. Of course, it’s also easy to see why his work became so popular because it’s damned effective. “Reddit as a website gave me the opportunity to get my stories in front thousands and thousands of people,” said...