This is a story with details so obvious and so easily expected that there is barely any reason to report them. Really, I’m just doing this to bum out the hardcore Isaac Asimov purists who are already despondent at the idea of Roland Emmerich getting his hands on the Foundation Trilogy. It’s all in the headline, really: Emmerich’s adaptation of Asimov’s story won’t just be predictably big and explode-y; it will be 3D and made with motion-capture goodness. Read More »
At the upfronts last month, TNT announced that they had ordered a piliot for a new sci-fi alien invasion television series executive produced by Steven Spielberg. Scirpted by Academy Award-nominated Saving Private Ryan scribe Robert Rodat, and based on an idea co-conceived with Spielberg, the series would be set six months after aliens decimated mankind.
Entertainment Weekly has now learned that Spielberg is persuing Noah Wyle (ER, Donnie Darko) to star as the leader of a ragtag group of survivors who “must fight for their survival and maintain their humanity.” Wyle is good as the like-able everyman, and I can easily imagine him as a leader. The idea sounds great, but I wonder how it will translate with a tv-budget.
How does a big screen adaptation of Tom Thumb sound to you? Yeah, not too exciting.
What if I told you that Kevin Lima, the guy who directed Disney’s Enchanted is attached? Still not sold?
What if I told you that Saving Private Ryan scribe Robert Rodat has been hired to write the script? Sounding a little better?
Tom Thumb is a traditional hero in 16th century English folklore, who would get into almost fatal situations in his parents home (such as almost being cooked to death in a bowl of pudding) before somehow ending up in King Arthur’s castle. Rodat’s version will stray from the traditional tale, and is said to be a completely fresh take on the character’s origin story:
“An arrogant knight who’s shrunk to 6 inches while assigned to protect a princess and then discovers what it means to be a real hero.”
Warner Bros is setting the film up as a tentpole. This whole announcement is very curious as Lima probably had a choice of many promising projects after Enchanted. I’m not saying that Tom Thumb couldn’t translate into a fun tentpole film, but it seems like an odd choice at face value. Lima is planning on filming the movie as a live-action/cg hybrid (ala Alvin and the Chipmunks), with Tom Thumb as the sole computer generated character.
source: THR, Variety
