"In its latest incarnation, DreamWorks adventure pic Argonauts will be scripted by Michael Cooney, who will begin the project once he's wrapped Bad Ronald for Warner Bros.

Pic is a tentpole in the vein of Raiders of the Lost Ark and takes place on the eve of WWII, when a group of treasure hunters think they've figured out the location of the fabled sunken ship of Jason and the Argonauts, a vessel whose contents are believed to contain the mythical Golden Fleece.

John Baldecchi and Jason Hoffs are producing with Stephen Sommers and his partner and his editor Bob Ducsay.

In the pic's original package, Sommers was attached to direct a script by Simon Kinberg. Sommers will now only produce.

Argonauts is a home-coming of sorts for Hoffs, who brought the pic to the studio back in 1996, when he was a DreamWorks exec. He pursued the project with Baldecchi at Sony but returned to DreamWorks as a producer in August.A draft by Cooney is expected by early next year. DreamWorks is hoping for a 2006 holiday season release.

Cooney wrote last year's Sony thriller Identity, directed by James Mangold. He recently sold the sci-fi pitch Unique to Disney.

Source: /www.variety.com"">Variety

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