The Sound Of Allan

Sounds like there's a new writer to keep an eye out for. Allan Loeb has just sold his second spec script (that, for the uninitiated, is where the writer has completed it and sells it for a flat fee, rather than being hired to develop and draft an idea with a studio from scratch). Dreamworks have shelled out the readies for Things We Lost In The Fire, for Sam Mendes to produce. It's the story of a damaged man who moves in with his late best friend's widow and children, after the husband suddenly dies. A lot of healing and patching back together of lives occurs, and emotional voids are confronted. Potentially soapy, granted, but we're sure that in the safe hands of Mendes, this will come to life as a delicate and touching tale. You're probably also going to be treated to at least a couple of fine performances, if track records are anything to go by, but either it's not going to be seen for a good long while, or Mendes will have to squeeze this project in between promo duties for his upcoming Gulf War film Jarhead, and the production of Sweeney Todd and The Kite Runner - all three films tentatively have 2006 release dates attached to them, so at this stage your guess is as good as ours. This morning's announcement of Allan's second effort being picked up comes not too long after Sony purchased The Only Living Boy In New York (which sounds great, but seeing as Garden State already 'owns' the coolness rights to the Simon & Garfunkel song from which this project takes its title, but that's a whole different issue), which concerns the adventures of a young man who lives