Mark Damon's MDPWorldwide has acquired the screenplay Havoc by Stephen Gaghan, theOscar-winning writer of Trafficand director of the forthcoming Abandon for Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment.

Havoc is a multi-layered drama in the vein of Traffic about a gang of wealthy teens from the upscale LosAngeles neighbourhood of Pacific Palisades who imitate street gangstas in aneffort to find an authentic emotional experience.

Gaghan wrote the scriptbased on a screenplay by Jessica Kaplan, who wrote it when she was a student.John Morrissey (American History X, Kingdom Come) and Jack F Murphy (Progeny, Ticks) will produce, with Mark Damon as executive producerand Lars Bjorck as co-producer.

MDP recently acquiredinternational rights to The United States Of Leland from Kevin Spacey's production outfit TriggerStreet Productions. To be directed by Matthew Ryan Hodge and produced by Spaceyand Bernie Morris of Trigger Street, the film starts shooting next week in LosAngeles with a cast including Ryan Gosling, Don Cheadle, Chris Klein, MichelleWilliams, Jena Malone and Spacey himself.