Pen To Paper: the Weinsteins do kung fu, Santa gets a sibling

Those wily Weinsteins have snaffled up the rights to Kung Fu High School, a novel by Ryan Gattis about, strangely enough, a high school where the kids are kung fu gurus. The story follows five gangs fighting for school supremacy, each using a different form of the lethal martial art. No word on casting yet but the script has been scribbled by Ernesto Foronda, who wrote Justin Lin’s crime drama Better Luck Tomorrow and is currently scripting Lin’s revenge-fuelled remake of Oldboy. (What odds would we get on Lin signing up for lensing duties for Kung Fu High School, we wonder?)

‘Twas a couple of months before Christmas... which must mean that studios are already raising their thumbs and breaking out the cheque books for next year’s festive flicks. First off the conveyer belt is Fred Claus, the story of Santa’s slightly less well-known brother who, after a streak of bad luck, finds himself moving in with his rosy-cheeked sibling. The screenplay has been penned by Dan Fogelman, whose only major credit to date is writing and producing the US TV show Like Family, about a mixed race household. The man wielding the megaphone on Fred Claus is Mike Mitchell whose past gems include one of Total Film’s favourite comedies ever, Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo and – wait for it – the Ben Affleck stinker Surviving Christmas. Not even Santa can save you now...