Short takes: Cage teams up with Carpenter

• The Hollywood Reporter says Nicholas Cage and John Carpenter may join forces to develop “Scared Straight,” a thriller about a convict forced to help free a hostage held inside a prison. Ron Brinkerhoff rewrote the original script by Joe Gazzam.  

• Aline Brosh McKenna, screenwriter of “The Devil Wears Prada,” has been hired to write the script for “The Ivy Chronicles,” which will star Sarah Jessica Parker as an upper-middle class mother who is forced to move into a cheap downtown apartment after losing her job and getting divorced. (The Hollywood Reporter)

• According to Variety, Robert De Niro is in talks to star alongside Mel Gibson in Martin Campbell’s crime drama “Edge of Darkness.” Gibson plays a homicide detective who discovers his daughter’s secret life after she’s murdered on the steps of his house. De Niro would star as an operative sent to clean up any kind of evidence.

• Variety also reports Rob Cohen’s “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” opened with $15.3 million Friday, beating Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight,” which took in $12.6 million. “The Mummy Returns” collected $23.4 million on its opening day in 2001.