UPDATED: Much happened rather quickly this evening. AICN reports that Pacific Rim will be Guillermo del Toro‘s next film, and the director responds to an email from the Criterion Cast asking about a green light for At the Mountains of Madness with “The opposite- Dead.” So At the Mountains of Madness seems to be gone. Let’s hope that some of the info below — that GDT might return to Mountains after making Pacific Rim — turns out to be true. (Do I really believe that will happen? No.) Original article follows.
Today is all about the ill-timed follow-up stories. We had a Martin Scorsese twofer earlier, and now here’s your second Guillermo del Toro update in as many hours.
Last year Legendary Pictures bought the Travis Beacham script Pacific Rim, which is a tentpole project with monsters and big destruction. There was a moment where the script was rumored to be the basis for Legendary’s new Godzilla movie, but that was quickly set right: Pacific Rim is something entirely different. Now there is a report that, due to the lengthy timeline in getting Universal to greenlight the H.P. Lovecraft adaptation At the Mountains of Madness, there is a chance that Guillermo del Toro will direct Pacific Rim as his next film. Read More »
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Briefly: Legendary Pictures is going back to Clash of the Titans writer Travis Beacham for another potential summer blockbuster. The company has just “closed a high-six figure preemptive acquisition” of a 25-page treatment called Pacific Rim. If things go according to plan, the story will become a tentpole for Warner Bros. Here’s how Deadline describes the story:
Set in a future in which malevolent creatures threaten the earth, the planet must band together and use highly advanced technology to eradicate the growing menace.
So an alien invasion picture…fine, not bad. Or a thinly veiled Star Blazers remake? That could be fun. Let’s see where it goes. Invoking the new Clash of the Titans isn’t a great thing at this point, but the finished film doesn’t represent what Beacham wrote. There were drafts after his, and a great deal of changes were made to the film in the editing room. Beacham is also the man behind the new script for The Black Hole, as well as the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea film being produced by Ridley Scott’s company.
Now there are two 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea films. Just over the weekend we heard that Disney has been quietly re-developing the film version that was sunk last year. Instead of McG directing, this one may have David Fincher at the helm.
Here’s where it gets complicated. Fox also has an adaptation of Jules Verne‘s classic story in the works, and has Ridley and Tony Scott developing the film through their company, Scott Free. Read More »
Tron isn’t the only classic Disney property to be revitalized by Joseph Kosinski. After he finishes Tron Legacy, Kosinski will turn to a new version of The Black Hole. (As a producer, possibly as director.) The 1979 original was the most expensive film Disney had made at the time, and pioneered the use of computer graphics and electronic music. As a response to 2001 and Star Wars the movie was a commercial failure, but it has an enduring legacy thanks to some timeless production design and effects work, not to mention the nightmarish ending.
So what will Kosinksi’s version be like? Read More »
Disney is developing a reinvention of the 1979 sci-fi film The Black Hole, with Tron: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski and producer Sean Bailey on board, along with Clash of the Titans scribe Travis Beacham working on the screenplay. Kosinski might direct if he can find time in his schedule, with his planned sci-fi epic Oblivion and further possible Tron sequels.
The details of the update are being kept tightly under wraps, though HeatVision reports that the new take grounds the story in “the science of a black hole, much more so than in the original,” and will see the return of the red robot Maximilian. Knowing Disney’s history, I’m sure this project is being developed for a 3D release.
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Warner Bros Pictures has issued an official press release announcing the beginning of principal photography on Louis Leterrier‘s Clash of the Titans. I’ve included the whole press release after the jump, and it is actually worth reading because it includes a detailed cast and crew breakdown, and plot synopsis. The film is currently scheduled to hit theaters on March 26th 2010.
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Lawrence Kasdan has been hired to write a remake of the 1981 cult classic Clash of the Titans for Warner Bros.
Kasden was a legendary screenwriter whose credits included Return of the Jedi, The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Big Chill. The once great screenwriter has had a run of bad luck in the last ten years, turning out two films (and only two films) that were less than successful Mumford and Dreamcatcher. It’s exciting to imagine that Kasden will make a huge comeback (both creatively and financially) with this one.
The original Desmond Davis film was an adaptation of the myth of Perseus which told his quest to battle both Medusa and the Kraken monster in order to save the Princess Andromeda. The movie is famous for its use of Ray Harryhausen’s stop motion animated creates.
Travis Beacham (Killing on Carnival Row), John Glenn & Travis Wright penned previous drafts. The project has been in development for almost exactly one year.
