Packaging of TV shows has gotten most of the ink in the WGA's ongoing battle with Hollywood's talent agencies. But in a new video, Michele Mulroney and John August, members of the guild's negotiating committee, contend that agency affiliation to production companies through vertically integrated parent corporations is…

Screenwriter John August, a member of the WGA's negotiating committee, says he's hopeful that the guild and the talent agencies will resume discussions in the next few weeks to break their impasse over a new franchise agreement. Formal negotiations broke off Friday, after which the guild ordered all of its members to…

Deadline has confirmed that Aladdin screenwriter John August is writing a prequel to Paramount’s 1978 musical Grease. The pic will take its jumping off point from the song “Summer Nights” and focus on the fling that John Travolta and Olivia Newton John’s high school characters Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsson had before…

A Pittsburgh “family-friendly” community theater has canceled a production of the musical Big Fish after a dispute with the director over the inclusion of a same-sex couple as background characters, drawing a strong rebuke from the musical’s authors. Family-friendly “shouldn’t mean ignoring reality,” said the 2013…

Guy Ritchie is in talks with Disney to direct Aladdin, the latest in the studio’s efforts to re-imagine classic properties for contemporary audiences. Big Fish scribe John August has written the script, and The Lego Movie‘s Dan Lin is producing. Those franchise launches have included Maleficent, Cinderella and most…

John August, who counts Big Fish and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory among his screenwriting adaptations, has just made a deal to author three books targeted at middle-grade children. The first will be Arlo Finch in the Valley of Fire, set to be published in early 2018 by with Roaring Brook Press, an imprint of the…

Big Fish and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory scribe John August will receive the WGA West’s 2016 Valentine Davies Award in recognition of his humanitarian efforts and civic service, as well as his role in fostering a community of writers. He will be honored February 13 at the WGA Awards’ West Coast ceremony at the…

EXCLUSIVE: Armed with a treatment by Big Fish scribe John August, Disney is now looking to hire a screenwriter to give feature treatment to Tower Of Terror, long one of the most popular rides in its theme parks. Jim Whitaker is producing this with August, after he and the A-list writer hatched an idea based on the…

EXCLUSIVE: CBS Films has tapped a new scribe to spin its Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark. BAFTA-nominated John August (Big Fish, Frankenweenie, GO) will adapt the iconic book series by Alvin Schwartz that had children of the ’80s and ’90s hearing bumps in the night, penning a new script based on the best-selling…

The story’s coming to an end for Broadway‘s Big Fish, the stage version of Tim Burton’s 2003 film that opened just three months ago. The show’s final performance is slated for Sunday, December 29, 2013 at NYC’s Neil Simon Theatre. Middling ticket sales had dropped to below 50% of potential gross by last week. The…

EXCLUSIVE: I’m hearing that Dexter star Michael C. Hall is negotiating to play the lead in Big Fish on Broadway next year. Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks, who produced the Tim Burton-directed film, are producing the musical stage adaptation. Susan Stroman (The Scottsboro Boys) is directing and Andrew Lippa (The Addams Famil…

I Am Number Four director DJ Caruso has tweeted he will direct the John August scripted Preacher for Sony Pictures based on the comic book series. Since nobody has hollered at him, we’ll assume he has the…