Comic Con-Worthy ODAs: Lot Of Coveted Directing Gigs Out There

We told you yesterday about Ben Affleck writing a new Batman movie with DC honcho Geoff Johns that Affleck will direct and star in. There are a number of other Comic Con-worthy projects percolating with filmmakers circling, or at least the rumors they are circling. Here are some of the best Open Directing Assignments that agents of directors are jockeying for right now.

First up on this grapevine are the incessant rumors that the reason Jurassic World helmer Colin Trevorrow stepped out after a single film is because he has succumbed to The Force and will direct a Star Wars movie. There is a Star Wars panel here at Comic Con that is about to get underway, but new business isn’t going to be on the menu, so if this deal makes it will materialize a bit later down the road.

Francis Lawrence, whose The Hunger Games: Mockingjay–Part 2 owned Hall H yesterday with Jennifer Lawrence and the rest of her cast mates in tow, is now eyeing involvement in Red Sparrow. That is the one based on the Jason Matthews novel about a Russian spy who falls for a CIA agent and is tempted to become a double agent. American Hustle scribe Eric Warren Singer wrote the script and Film Rites’ Steve Zaillian and Garrett Basch are producing.

Finally, the setting of Lego Movie guys Phil Lord and Christopher Miller to direct the Han Solo Star Wars spinoff movie has created an opening on two plum projects. First is the next 21 Jump Street film, and this is particularly tasty because it is the one that is expected to cross-pollinate with Sony Pictures’ Men in Black franchise, as stars Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill get drafted into that alien hunting organization. Did you think that narc’ing baby-faced drug dealers was a formula that would last forever?

Also on the ODA list because of the Lord & Miller Star Wars news is The Flash, to which those filmmakers were also attached. Warner Bros and DC Entertainment, which has its Comic Con panel tomorrow, is now busy trying to replace them to keep that film moving forward.

Warner Bros is also out scouting for a director to take on its Dungeons And Dragons movie. How many of the Comic Con faithful have been waiting for that one to materialize after so many sleepless nights at the role-playing game?