WWE Studios Starts 'Bending The Rules'

WWE Studios has begun production on Bending the Rules, a drama that allows Jamie Kennedy to go mano a mano with WWE ring star Adam “Edge” Copeland. Kennedy plays a district attorney who’s trying to bring down a  rogue New Orleans police detective (Copeland) on corruption charges. One the day the DA loses his case, his prized possession, a 1956 Studebaker Goldenhawk gets swiped and complications ensue as the lawyer tries to get his car back. Jessica Walter, Jennifer Esposito, Alicia Witt and Phillip Baker Hall round out the cast. Saving Grace exec producer Artie Mandelberg directs a script by Dylan Schaffer. This is the latest in a series of nine films that Vince McMahon’s WWE is financing and shooting in quick succession. The film program is being supervised by producer and WWE Studios exec veep Michael Pavone and the slate culminates in WWE’s first wrestling-related storyline: a biopic of Gorgeous George, the flamboyant grappler who came of age during the advent of television. The pictures, which usually put at least one wrestler in a role, cost about $7 million each to make. Paradigm and 3 Arts rep Kennedy.

• WWE Films Wrestles With Gorgeous George