EXCLUSIVE: Greg Silverman and Jon Berg of Stampede Ventures have snapped up the rights to screenwriter Umair Aleem’s new action-adventure spec script, The Paladin,which is being eyed as a franchise-starter, unfolding into a much larger, expansive universe.
The Paladin is billed as Dr. Strange meets Unforgiven, centering around a broken-down, last of his kind warrior-mage who undertakes a final quest to protect a child who has the power to save or destroy our world.
Silverman and Berg will produce the feature with a plan to go into production next year. The packaging of a star and filmmaker are currently underway.
The Paladin comes on the heels of Aleem’s hard action feature, Kate, the 2017 Black list script which just premiered on Netflix this September starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Woody Harrelson, and Mike Martineau. Kate has the distinction of being the most watched film on any streaming service for 12 straight days. Aleem also adaptedDanger Girland wrote the sequel toMile 22for STX. His scriptThe Beastfor Peter Berg is currently in active development.
“This is exactly the type of material we’re searching for at Stampede. Big franchise, popcorn movies for a global audience”, said Silverman to Deadline.
Added Berg: “Umair has created a colossal IP property that can span multiple movies, television, video games, collectibles and more. We’re thrilled to bring a new universe of this scale to audiences.”
Aleem said, “The Paladin was born out of my adoration for spaghetti westerns, samurai sagas, the glory days of Heavy Metal magazine, and other cool genre s**t. And it’s frankly uncanny how kindred Jon and Greg’s vision for it is with my own. I’m so freakin’ stoked to rock ‘n roll with the supercool team at Stampede.”
The deal was negotiated by Chris Bosco and Lynne Higby on behalf of Stampede Ventures, and Nicholas Mohebbi and Bryan Bresser of Verve and Adam Kolbrenner of Lit Entertainment Group on behalf of Aleem. Aleem is repped by Verve and Lit Entertainment Group.
Silverman launched Stampede Ventures in 2018. His near 20-year tenure at Warner Bros saw him rise to President of Creative Development and Worldwide Production, working across a host of the studio’s tentpoles, including Edge of Tomorrow and The LEGO Movie. Recent credits for Stampede include Pink Skies Ahead and the live-action comedy special Mo Willems & the Storytime All-Stars Present: Don’t Let The Pigeon Do Storytime! on HBO Max which just received two Daytime Emmy noms.
Berg joined Stampede in 2020. After a 10-year run at Warners which saw him rise to Co-President of Production after which he exited. Berg acted as EP on Wonder Woman and Aquaman and a producer on Justice League. Most recently, he was a producer of the feature adaptation of Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep, the new audio drama Batman: The Audio Adventures released by HBO Max this month, and Cobweb for Lionsgate to be released next year.
Stampede’s currently in production on the animated feature Prince of Port au Prince from Wyclef Jean and Justin Marks at Netflix, has wrapped production on dark comedy Going Places, and just announced production start for a Mo Willems’ CGI animated rock opera, Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed: The Underground Rock Experience which will hit HBO Max in 2022.