In today's Callbacks -- your daily roundup of casting news from Deal Central -- Clive Owen prepares to search 12,000 New York cabs in "Medallion," Tim Burton may or may not be developing an adaptation of a Japanese comic, a "Boogie Nights" star tracks down Taylor Lautner, Stanley Tucci and Carla Gugino earn money as bankers, Lucas Foster makes a "Blood Oath" with author Christopher Farnsworth and Miranda July's "Future" strikes the Match Factory.
• Clive Owen and his perpetual 5 o'clock shadow will star in the action-thriller "Medallion," reports http://www.screendaily.com/news/production/clive-owen-to-star-in-medallion-for-parlay/5013756.article">Screen Daily.
Written by sizzling screenwriter David Guggenheim, the story follows a recently released bank robber who has six hours to pay a $50 million ransom after he learns that a former accomplice has kidnapped his daughter and stashed her in the trunk of one of Manhattan's 12,000 yellow cabs.
While the film will likely offer little in the way of anything new for Owen to play, it's nonetheless a great high-concept idea that provides a solid recipe for an entertaining action movie.
Guggeinheim recently sold his police drama "Puzzle Palace" to Summit after Universal and Scott Stuber bought his CIA thriller spec script "Safe House."
James Holt, Matthew Joynes, Jesse T. Kennedy and McG will produce "Medallion," with Wonderland's Mary Viola exec producing. Lisa Wilson of GK Films affiliate Parlay Films is handling sales at Cannes. Production is scheduled to begin in New York and Toronto this fall.
• Latino Review reports that Tim Burton is planning to direct a big-screen adaptation of the Japanese comic "Mai, the Psychic Girl."
The comic follows Mai Kuju, a 14 year-old Japanese girl with powerful psychic abilities who is being pursued by the Wisdom Alliance, an organization which secretly strives to control the world and already controls four other powerful psychic children. Desperate to have Mai under its influence, the Wisdom Alliance hires the Kaieda Intelligence Agency to capture the girl.
Latino Review says that Burton first began developing "Mai" in the late '80s and that Sony Family Films acquired the property some eight years ago, but Burton has since reacquired the rights to the source material and is said to be supervising the screenplay for the project, which is apparently on Burton's front-burner despite his attachment to nearly a dozen other projects.
For its part, Burton's representation at WME told TheWrap that the "Alice in Wonderland" director is "not involved with the development of the current incarnation of the project." The report certainly seemed suspect, especially considering Burton's ridiculously busy schedule, but it came from Latino Review's trusted source Pinche Taco, and to be fair, he's been right about plenty of things in the past.
• Alfred Molina has joined Lionsgate's "Abduction," reports Deadline.
The thriller stars Taylor Lautner as a young man who realizes he was kidnapped as a child and is forced to run for his life (with girlfriend Lily Collins) after he reaches out to find his real parents.
