Paramount Plans A "Doc Holliday" Franchise

By our guest blogger, Matt Jussim

Paramount Pictures is developing Chad St. John's spec script "The Further Adventures of Doc Holliday," reports Variety.

According to the site: Paramount Pictures has snapped up Chad St. John's action-adventure script "The Further Adventures of Doc Holliday" in the hopes of turning it into a Western-style tentpole. Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who produced the studio's "Transformers" films, is onboard to produce.

The studio is keeping the plot under wraps, but the project is described as a history-based action adventure tale in the vein of "Pirates of the Caribbean." The famously tuberculosis-ridden gunfighter, Holliday is best known for his friendship with Western lawman Wyatt Earp and for his role in 1881's Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Ariz.

Val Kilmer memorably played the character in 1993's "Tombstone" and a year later, Dennis Quaid starred as Holliday in Kevin Costner's "Wyatt Earp."

The site also said that St. John is attached to an array of Warner Bros. projects, including "The Days Before," "Sergeant Rock," "Motor City" and a remake of "Outland."

His script, "The Days Before," was listed at No. 10 on this year's Black List, which compiles the film industry's best-unproduced screenplays.

Western’s haven’t fared too well at the box office in recent memory, but Paramount is hoping that the high-concept script can right the course.

Look for the first film sometime in 2011.