James Mangold has signed an overall deal with Paramount Studios, per The Hollywood Reporter.
The deal will allow the Logan and Ford v Ferrari filmmaker to develop, direct, and produce projects for the studio, which already won a competitive bidding war for the director’s next feature, High Side, a motorcycle heist film starring Timothée Chalamet, this past summer.
Paramount Pictures Co-Chairs Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg spoke about the deal, saying,
“James Mangold is one of the most talented filmmakers working today, and we could not be more excited to welcome him to the Paramount family, starting with High Side, and many more collaborations to come.”
Mangold shared his excitement for the deal in a statement of his own, saying,
“I am very excited to begin this collaboration with David, Josh, and Dana, and everyone at Paramount. The enthusiasm they have demonstrated toward big screen films and the passion with which they have embraced my ideas for future projects is truly thrilling.”
The plot of High Side is described as a motocross heist movie following a former MotoGP racer who is persuaded by his brother to form a crew and start robbing banks. It is based on a currently unpublished short story by Jaime Oliveira, who is penning the screenplay.
Due to the deal, fans are concerned about the fate of several of Mangold’s previously announced projects, including a Star Wars prequel for Disney and a Swamp Thing entry for James Gunn’s DC Cinematic Universe.
The former would have been set thousands of years before any of the previous films in the sci-fi franchise, but has not received an update since 2023. With the latter, while Gunn announced Mangold’s involvement with Swamp Thing in 2023, he has since explained that he has yet to receive a script for it.
Mangold’s deal with Paramount comes on the heels of his acclaimed Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, which was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Picture at the 97th Academy Awards.
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