Mark Palansky is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. He got his start working as an assistant director on titan film productions such as Armageddon and Pearl Harbor. He then worked as a second unit director on The Island and The Amityville Horror.His directorial debut was a 2001 short film called The Same starring Josh Hartnett. Palansky made his big screen debut in 2006 with the modern day fairytale Penelope, starring Christina Ricci as a young blueblood cursed with a pig snout. The film received mixed reviews from critics. In October 2009 it was announced that Palansky is set to direct for Sony Pictures Entertainment action-adventure Iron Jack, a project that sparked a bidding war in 2008. Todd Garner will produce via his Broken Road Productions. George Heller and Jeremy Bell are serving as executive producers. The story takes place in the 1930s and tells of a renowned novelist and his is quest to unearth a legendary treasure. Sony picked up up-and-coming screenwriter Johnny Rosenthal's spec script for $1.25 million against $2 million, beating offers made from CBS Films, MGM and Spyglass. No production schedule was announced for the film.In a 2008 interview Palansky also revealed that he is working on two other projects with actor Peter Dinklage. The first one, Mendel's Dwarf, is a scientific love story. The second one, based on a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, is called Hop Frog. It is dark atmospheric revenge tale in the vein of a Grimms' Fairy Tales except it is not really fantastical.
$8 Million
