Latest Hollywood script deals

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Columbia Pictures has picked up the spec script "Supermax" from actors-turned-writers Mitch Rouse and Christopher Nelson.

The action horror tale is set in a maximum-security prison for the supernatural. The story centers on a skilled prison guard who is reassigned to Supermax. After a riot erupts, he must join forces with one of the prison's monstrous inmates in order to survive and fight his way out.

Rouse has appeared in "Reno 911!" and "According to Jim." He co-created "Strangers With Candy" and has been a writer on several movies, including "Without a Paddle." Nelson appeared as Uma Thurman's groom in "Kill Bill-Vol. 1" and had bit parts in "Bicentennial Man" and "Batman & Robin."

The project, which Todd Garner will produce via his Broken Road Productions banner, is unrelated to Warner Bros.' "Super Max," which is based on the DC Comics hero Green Arrow.

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LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Gold Circle Films has preemptively picked up the spec script "Mercy" from writer Chris Sparling.

The script, which is described as having multiple twists, centers on a family intent on protecting their dying mother, and their individual financial interests, from the violent wrath of a religious sect.

Gold Circle is fast-tracking the project, eyeing a shoot in early 2010.

The company recently released "The Haunting in Connecticut" through Lionsgate and has "The 4th Kind," starring Milla Jovovich, going out November 6 via Universal.

Sparling is best known for "Buried," his first feature script. The thriller, now in production, centers on a civilian contractor (Ryan Reynolds) who is kidnapped and awakens to find he has been buried alive in the Iraqi desert with only a phone and a lighter at his disposal inside a coffin.