A possible return to the X-Verse, an adaptation of a folk tale or another cinematic pass at… er… a folk saga. Why all of these Bryan Singer projects at once? Who knows, but I’m definitely not complaining.

After some wrangling, Warner Bros. and Legendary have secured the rights to remake John Boorman’s Excalibur with Singer linked as producer and possible director. A curious move as the source material, even if you count that as Malory and not just the Arthurian myths in essence, is definitely in the public domain. What is it about Boorman’s version that they wanted to secure? Maybe it’s just a preemptive move to totally lock out any potential of a lawsuit? Gotta love megabudget filmmaking and it’s wheelbarrows of dollarcrats.

The same story tells us that “Singer has been flirting with directing” the X-Men: First Class side-quel. A little surprising, perhaps, that of the in-development X-pictures it is this one and not the next Wolverine movie he’s being linked with, not least because his regular collaborator Christopher McQuarrie has set about scripting that one.

None of First Class, Excalibur or Battlestar Galactica seems likely to be Singer’s next directing project however, with the same Variety story suggesting that he’s currently gearing up to move on Jack the Giant Killer. They describe the story as being about “a young farmer who leads an expedition into the land of the giants to recover a kidnapped princess”. Something of a departure for the director, but a welcome one. There are so many riches in the pantheons of folklore and fairy tale that I’d love to see more of them hooked up with directors of this calibre.

Like many of Singer’s recently revealed engagements, Giant Killer has been filmed before. Apparently, there’s two versions of Nathan Juran’s 1962 picture - one with musical numbers, one without - and while I don’t recall any song and dance in the movie I passed the time with on a good few weekend afternoons in my youth, it doesn’t meant they weren’t there.

Jack the Giant Killer has been written by Darren Lemke and Mark Bomback, the only draft of the First Class script so far known is by OC creator Josh Schwartz, and Singer has yet to find a scriptwriter for Excalibur. I wonder if Neil Jordan’s not too busy while The Graveyard Book is still gearing up?

source: Variety