Raimi to reintroduce Jack Ryan

Sam Raimi may spearhead a franchise revival for Jack Ryan, the Tom Clancy-created CIA analyst, at Paramount Pictures, says Variety. Under the assignment, Raimi would develop and direct a series of films, produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Raimi’s Buckaroo Entertainment partner Josh Donen. Apparently, the plan for Ryan’s reintroduction would involve a younger, more formative point in the agent’s career than what audiences have previously seen.

Raimi visits Zoo for Paramount

Paramount Pictures is developing a movie adaptation of Monster Zoo, an upcoming graphic novel by Douglas TenNapel. Buckaroo Entertainment’s Sam Raimi and Josh Donen will produce with Ellen Goldsmith Vein of Gotham Group. Zoo tells the tale of “a young boy who discovers his local zoo contains critters much more frightening than the ordinary collection.” Variety has the story.

Lohman takes Page’s place in Hell

Alison Lohman has replaced Ellen Page in director Sam Raimi’s horror film Drag Me to Hell, shows The Hollywood Reporter. “Lohman will play a woman who is the unwitting recipient of a supernatural curse in the story written by Raimi and his brother, Ivan.” As reported earlier, Page dropped out of Hell last week, with reports varying as to the reason of her leaving.

Small Screen Roundup: 1/29/08 Edition

Spider-Man director Sam Raimi is teaming with Disney-ABC Domestic Television and ABC Studios for the live-action weekly series Wizard’s First Rule, writes The Hollywood Reporter. The show will be based on Terry Goodkind’s best-selling epic fantasy series The Sword of Truth.

Starz Entertainment is turning to Crash to find inspiration for its first ever original drama series. The feature, winner of the Oscar for Best Picture, is being developed into a series, with involvement from such key members of the film as Paul Haggis, Bobby Moresco, Bob Yari, Don Cheadle, Mark R. Harris and Tom Nunan. Coming Soon has the Starz press release.

Ain’t It Cool News has learned some of the dates for the 2008 Paley Fest events, held at the ArcLight in Hollywood. The complete schedule for the Paley Fest will be announced on February 4, when premium ticket packages will go on sale to museum members. Individual tickets will become available February 7, while non-members will have to wait until February 10 to purchase any remaining tickets.

Reuters reports that CBS has ordered two more editions of Survivor to be broadcast during the 2008-2009 season. Jeff Probst will return as the host for those editions.

Looking to produce scripted content while the Writers Guild of America is on strike, CBS Paramount Network TV is uniting with Canada’s CTV to produce at least 13 episodes of the police drama Flashpoint. Variety notes that the scripts for the series were written by Canadian scribes.

Apparently several studios have suggested that they are reducing the amount of pilots they produce. Marti Noxon, an executive for ABC’s Private Practice, explains to NPR how a such a movie may affect audiences, TV writers and the studios.

DVDActive has the specs for the direct-to-DVD films What Love Is, starring Cuba Gooding Jr.; Conspiracy, starring Val Kilmer; and Pistol Whipped, starring Steven Seagal and Lance Henriksen.