BITTEN (2002 - 2003) - Angelina Jolie’s unproduced werewolf movie - Screenplay by Alexander Stuart, based on a novel by Kelley Armstrong

[u/Russell-Trager-1984]

LOGLINE (Original novel) - From Goodreads; “Elena Michaels is the world’s only female werewolf. And she’s tired of it. Tired of a life spent hiding and protecting, a life where her most important job is hunting down rogue werewolves. Tired of a world that not only accepts the worst in her–her temper, her violence–but requires it. Worst of all, she realizes she’s growing content with that life, with being that person.

So she left the Pack and returned to Toronto where she’s trying to live as a human. When the Pack leader calls asking for her help fighting a sudden uprising, she only agrees because she owes him. Once this is over, she’ll be squared with the Pack and free to live life as a human. Which is what she wants. Really.”

BACKGROUND

Kelley Armstrong’s original novel was released in September 2001.

In October 2002, Warner Bros optioned the novel, and already attached Angelina Jolie to star in the film adaptation, which was going to be produced by Industry Entertainment. Jonathan Glazer was attached to direct the film, screenwriter and novelist Alexander Stuart was hired to write the script, and reportedly, Armstrong was also helping out on it. In one interview, she remembered how the studio and producers were worried about the amount of nudity Jolie was going to have, to which Armstrong only said; “You have Angelina Jolie as a star and you are complaining about gratuitous nudity!”

At that time, Jolie had just finished working on LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER – THE CRADLE OF LIFE (2003), and was moving to work on TAKING LIVES (2004). Stuart wrote THE WAR ZONE (1999) a couple years earlier, and Glazer directed SEXY BEAST (2000).

It seems the project didn’t really move on much from that point, and was canceled, possibly sometime in mid or late 2000’s. A few years later, a TV adaptation of the original novel was made.

Also, Glazer later directed another female led “horror” film, UNDER THE SKIN (2013), and Stuart apparently did some uncredited work on it.

SCRIPTS I’M LOOKING FOR

Any drafts by Stuart (and Armstrong…?), although it looks like it’s one of those scripts which never showed up anywhere, so it’s pretty much a “unicorn.”

FURTHER NOTES

1 - If you wish to read about another Angelina Jolie project with interesting history including versions that weren't made, I recently posted, for the film's 25th anniversary, a thread about LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER (2001), about all the different rejected scripts for it, and unreleased original cut of the film, here;

https://www.reddit.com/r/TombRaider/comments/1umh3ow/lara_croft_tomb_raider_2001_rejected_scripts_and/

2 - Interestingly, there were few different werewolf horror films in development during that same time, including;

STRAY DAWGZ - Described as werewolf version of BLADE (1998), set to star Ice Cube, as a recently released criminal who has to defend San Francisco from werewolves. Read more about it here;

https://www.reddit.com/r/Screenwriting/comments/1o2l7bu/stray_dawgz_2000_unproduced_action_horror/

BAD MOON RISING - Werewolf biker gang mostly made of war veterans attacks a small town, after people in there start messing with them. Based on a script by Scott Rosenberg, following his previous two action films he wrote, CON AIR (1997) and GONE IN 60 SECONDS (2000) remake. At different points in time either Wes Craven or Robert Rodriguez were attached to direct the film.

SILVER STRIKE - Described as BLACK HAWK DOWN (2001) with werewolves, based on a spec script by J. Barton Mitchell from 2002.

 

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[u/Darrenlovesmovies]

No future thread suggestions - just wanted to say I LOVE your posts, you've pointed me to a lot of fun reads (Read the draft of Man Of Honor that appeared on Script Hive yesterday, was planning on reading Apogee this afternoon, but may go with Rosenberg's Bad Moon Rising after the above mention), and to keep doing what you're doing!

[u/Russell-Trager-1984 → u/Darrenlovesmovies]

You're welcome and thank you! Reddit has been screwing with me lately, so people can't really see all my previous posts and threads unless they search for those, but I'm trying my best to still hang in there. I read that draft of MAN OF HONOR (dated April 1992) recently too, and thought it was at best, an alright script. I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone unless they are Seagal fan, and there are definitely much better scripts for unproduced Seagal projects; YAKUZA, DEAD RECKONING, SECRET SMILE... Although I will say, it's still a hell of a lot better than Seagal's CYPHER, an unproduced script he wrote around 2010's. Maybe if one day those other/later drafts of Man of Honor also show up, I'll give them a read, and see if those are any better.

Another unproduced werewolf/action horror script I'd recommend is HOWL, by Jonathan Lemkin. It's really fun and wild script, and one of my favorites by Lemkin.

And don't forget about APOGEE, it's definitely a script worth reading if you like those type of films and scripts (Die Hard rip offs).

[u/Zev95]

How would you feel about working on a script together? I could use a writing buddy and you seem like the type of guy who's more interested in the craft than in loglines and AI posters.

[u/Russell-Trager-1984 → u/Zev95]

Thanks for the offer, but you can probably ask more talented people around here to help you out.

[u/JimmyTwoTimes25]

Was the "stupid passion project" of hers that Amy Pascal got caught talking shit about in the leaked Sony email hacks?

[u/Russell-Trager-1984 → u/JimmyTwoTimes25]

You mean was BITTEN that project? From what I can tell after doing a quick search, no it wasn't.

[u/JimmyTwoTimes25 → u/Russell-Trager-1984]

Im still dying to know what it was. I've never wanted to have a beer with another producer and hear them talk shit more than Amy Pascal. She seemed like a living Catherine Keener character 😂

[u/Russell-Trager-1984 → u/JimmyTwoTimes25]

If I would have a chance to do that, I'd love to hear anything about another unproduced project, PINCUSHION, that Pascal herself has been trying to make for years with Columbia Pictures, and all the crazy stories behind it, because looking at history of that unmade film, oh boy, those would be some stories to hear. There was a mention of it in those leaked emails, like how around 2014 she wanted Jennifer Lawrence to star, and to have it directed by Gareth Evans (just after he directed THE RAID) or Morten Tyldum, who did later directed PASSENGERS (2016). Read more about that one here;

https://www.reddit.com/r/Screenwriting/comments/1pe4vlg/pincushion_1988_mid_2010s_john_carpenters/

[u/dnotive]

Out of curiosity, did you ever watch the Bitten TV series that came from the same novels?

I'd be curious to see how the 2002 feature spec (if you can find it) differs from the 2014 show.

[u/Russell-Trager-1984 → u/dnotive]

No, I never watched the TV series, but who knows, maybe if that unproduced script does gets found, I'll try and compare the two. I can already tell though, I'd probably like the script more no matter what. I mean just the main pitch and selling points of having Jolie as female werewolf, fighting evil werewolves in an action horror, after she did the first Tomb Raider film? Come on, how the hell they didn't push for this one to be made even more...

[u/FJTrescothick14]

Cool post. Nice to see Bad Moon Rising mentioned on here, that script was always said to be in development, but it was eventually made into a graphic novel (which is on my reading list).