Motion Pictures
March 20, 2001
Warner Bros. Pictures And Bel-Air Entertainment Acquire Rights To New Novel By Lorenzo Carcaterra
(March 20, 2001 – Burbank, CA) – Warner Bros. Pictures and Bel-Air Entertainment have acquired the motion picture rights to “Street Boys,” a moving and poignant new novel by Lorenzo Carcaterra, for producers Barry Levinson and Paula Weinstein. The announcement was made today by Lorenzo di Bonaventura, President of Worldwide Production, Warner Bros. Pictures, and Steven Reuther, Chairman and CEO of Bel-Air Entertainment.
The tentatively-titled “Street Boys” is set against the backdrop of World War II and tells the fictionalized account of a regiment that played an unlikely but crucial role in the defeat of the German Army. Ballantine, a division of Random House, has slated “Street Boys” as its lead novel for Summer 2002.
Barry Levinson, who intends to direct the project, will produce with Paula Weinstein and Steven Reuther. Lorenzo Carcaterra will write the screenplay and executive produce along with Lou Pitt.
In 1996, Barry Levinson adapted and directed the hit Warner Bros. Pictures drama “Sleepers,” based on Lorenzo Carcaterra’s best-selling book of the same name and starring Dustin Hoffman, Robert DeNiro and Brad Pitt. Levinson and his Baltimore Spring Creek partner Paula Weinstein previously produced the feature “Liberty Heights,” which Levinson also wrote and directed, as well as the upcoming film “Bandits.”
Steven Reuther most recently produced the current Warner Bros. Pictures release “Sweet November,” starring Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron, as well as the upcoming Warner Bros. Pictures releases “Rock Star,” starring Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston, and “Collateral Damage,” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Lou Pitt is currently producing the feature film “Carolina,” which stars Julia Stiles and Kathy Bates.
A former reporter for the New York Daily News, Lorenzo Carcaterra is the author of the autobiographical memoir "A Safe Place," which chronicles the events preceding those detailed in “Sleepers,” as well as the best-selling Mafia-themed novel “Gangster” and the gritty crime fiction “Apaches.” # # #