Cowell Feature Moving Ahead at Par

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(FROM THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER) – Paramount is moving ahead on Simon Cowell's movie about a rags-to-riches reality music star. The project, based on real-life opera singer Paul Potts and his last-ditch effort to make it big on Britain's Got Talent, has tapped writer Justin Zackham (The Bucket List) to pen the screenplay, and the movie has been given the title One Chance. Potts was an amateur opera singer and mobile-phone salesman when, on a lark, he auditioned for Talent in 2007 and bowled over judges, including Cowell. Potts' on-air performances from the show became a YouTube sensation, and he went on to record an album and go on tour. The movie, which Cowell is producing, is expected to be a comedy-drama that tracks Potts' story up through his Talent appearances. Zackham is next writing the environmental drama Planetwalker for Universal and is also set to produce Upstate, Jessica Goldberg's project about high school and electoral politics. Cowell is making his studio debut with Chance and also is developing Star Struck, another project about a musical reality show that has not yet been set up at a studio. (Hollywood Reporter)