Waters rolls lucky 'Seven'

By Gregg Goldstein

"Mean Girls" helmer Mark Waters is attached to direct Joshua Ferris' comedy-drama "Seven Days" for Universal Pictures.

Watermark Pictures' Jessica Tuchinsky and Waters will produce the feature.

The script chronicles seven pivotal days in a man's life during the course of 20 years, with each segment of the film beginning as he wakes up that day.

Ferris, a National Book Award finalist for his novel "Then We Came to the End," signed his contract before the recent WGA strike. "I can't remember large periods of my life that well, but certain days stick in my mind, for good reasons and bad," he said, noting the origin of the "Seven" plot. "At the end, hopefully it will be a portrait of a life as it's lived."

Tuchinsky and Ferris first discussed the idea a year ago and developed it for six months, eventually bringing it to Universal exec Peter Cramer to develop at the studio. Ferris is waiting for the end of the strike to resume work on the script and hasn't yet finalized which days of the lead character's life will appear in the final version.

Ferris has worked on two screenplays for Focus Features and is looking to find a producer for "The Life and Death of Jimmy Katz," an ensemble piece about a young man who commits a murder for hire. The first act presents Katz's life as it happens, the second act shows his fantasy of the life he could have lived, and the final act places him in purgatory, where he has to make amends for his crime.

Waters is gearing up to direct "The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past," starring Jennifer Garner and Matthew McConaughey, for New Line. He and Tuchinsky have several Watermark projects in development.

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