Tuesday, November 24

• Script for Forbidden Planet Reboot Opens New Horizons

  It's been months since there was any real news about the planned reboot of the 1956 sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet. Last we heard that a script idea, which looked to be pretty cool and original, had been scuttled by Internet leaks. Now screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski has started talking about the status of the project again, offering up a few details about the direction it will be taking.

  The original, inspired by Shakespeare's The Tempest, centered on an expedition to discover what had become of a colony ship mysteriously lost decades before. When they land, romantic tensions over a scientist's beautiful young daughter famously erupt into technologically enhanced "monsters from the id." While remaining faithful to the original idea, JMS told SCI FI Wire he plans to expand the horizon of the story a bit.

  We've actually decided to show more of the first ship when it first arrived 20 years earlier to sort of counterpoint what's happening in the present story. If you're a fan of the original, as I am, and have always been, I think it's very faithful to that.... There's a little more action, but it's still a strong character piece, because it's based on The Tempest and the idea of a father whose daughter is being courted by, in the original play, sailors that are washed up on shore. You need to have that dynamic still in place to respect the original and the source material. So there's a fair amount of talking, but there's some really cool action pieces in it as well.

  What they have seen so far apparently has studio executives pretty excited. They are already talking about the possibility of sequels.

  Warner is very excited about it, thinks it's a big franchise for them and a huge budget, so they're very much oriented toward getting it done.

  No word yet on who will be directing. There was a rumor a while back that James Cameron might be interested, but nothing new on that front so far.

  
  

  Posted 11/24/2009 by Bill

  Related: James Cameron | J. Michael Straczynski | Forbidden Planet

Sunday, November 22

• Joel Silver Updates Lobo and Other Movies in Development

  Producer Joel Silver has an incredible resume, including many of Hollywood's top properties — the Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, Predator, and Matrix franchises. His latest film, Ninja Assassin, opens this week and Silver is in various stages of production on eight other movies, with another dozen or more in development.

  With so many different projects, it's hard to keep track of the status of all of them. Thankfully, Latino Review caught up with Silver and probed him about several of the fan-favorite films he is working on. While Silver didn't mention anything about the 3-D adaptation of DC Comics' Swamp Thing that he teased back in August, he did say that he is working on Lobo, another DC adaptation.

  We're working really close on that. It's close, yeah. There is a good shot we can make that happen.

  

  While many fans have been clamoring to see Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen) in the lead role of "The Last Czarnian," Silver stated back in August that his intention for Lobo was to go full CGI with the super-ripped alien bounty hunger, a la Avatar. When asked about the possibility of Morgan playing Lobo, Silver said that he is "very talented" and mentioned that Morgan was already tapped for yet another DC Comics adaptation, The Losers, and that they're still trying to figure out what will work best for Lobo.

  There's been some interesting tests. It's pretty spectacular. So that's gonna come about soon I think.

  After Ninja Assassin, Silver has the Guy Ritchie-directed Sherlock Holmes hitting theaters, which Silver would "love" to see turn into a franchise.

  There are plenty of Sherlock Holmes stories. But let's get the movie open, let's see how it goes and we'lll see what happens.

  Silver will no longer be teaming with Ritchie on an adaptation of Sgt. Rock after Sherlock Holmes, but he said that Ritchie is "involved" with Gamekeeper, which is "in development." He is also re-teaming with his Ninja Assassin writer, J. Michael Straczynski, an another project.

  [Straczynski's] writing Forbidden Planet now. We'll see a script before the end of the year and that's exciting too.

  Silver also mentioned that the reason he let Sony have He-Man was because it was a "weird one" that they couldn't figure out how to adapt. And, no, there will be no sequel to Speed Racer, not that too many people will shed a tear over that news.

  
  
  Next Showing: Ninja Assassin opens November 25
  

  Ninja Assassin - Trailer

  Jung-Ji Hoon (aka Rain) stars - Releases Nov. 25, 2009
  

  Sherlock Holmes - Trailer

  Robert Downey Jr. stars - Releases Dec. 25, 2009

  Posted 11/22/2009 by BrentJS

  Related: Joel Silver | Guy Ritchie | J. Michael Straczynski | Jeffrey Dean Morgan | Ninja Assassin | Sherlock Holmes

Tuesday, October 27

• Jerry Bruckheimer Plotting Civil War -- Disney-Style

  Variety reports that Jerry Bruckheimer, producer of TV shows and movies including CSI: Miami and Confessions of a Shopaholic, is working on an adaptation of the popular video game Shattered Union for Disney. In this strategy war game, the United States is battling seceded states after a nuclear blast wipes out Washington, DC.

  Bruckheimer has brought in Ninja Assassin and World War Z scribe J. Michael Straczynski to pen the screenplay. Both are no stranger to video game adaptations. Bruckheimer produced Disney's upcoming Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which opens May 28, 2010, and Straczynski is also writing a Silver Surfer movie for Fox — good news for fans that thought the movie was dead.

  Since the movie is being made for Disney, should we assume Bruckheimer will make the nuclear explosion that destroys the Capitol and ignites civil war family-friendly?

  
  

  Posted 10/27/2009 by Ryan

  Related: Jerry Bruckheimer | J. Michael Straczynski

Wednesday, October 7

• New World War Z Script on Its Way

  

  Quantum of Solace director Marc Forster surprised everyone when he turned down another Bond flick to direct the adaptation of Max Brooks' best-selling novel World War Z. A script from J. Michael Staczynski was already in place and had been hailed as "a horror epic, a serious, sober-minded adult picture waiting to be made" and "a genre-defining piece of work" by an AICN script review. Straczynski himself described it as a "thriller" along the lines of Bourne Identity. You know, but with zombies.

  Forster disagreed, however, claiming the script was "far from realization" and decided to make the thriller Disconnect before starting work on World War Z. Screenwriter Matthew Michael Carnahan (The Kingdom) was brought in to work on another draft in the meantime.

  All of this was confusing to Brooks, who recently told MTV that he doesn't understand why Carnahan was brought in to work on a script he already thought was "brilliant."

  You know... the studio comes in and gives their notes and Forster came in and gave his notes. Carnahan was brought in for reasons unbeknownst to me. Maybe he's doing a polish, maybe he's doing a top-down rewrite. I know that his draft is supposed to come in in the next few weeks.

  I read Straczynski's first draft, and it was f**king brilliant. As the book writer I know that's sacrilege to say, but it really was good. I turned to my wife and said, "Honey, this is as good as the book. This is gonna be an amazing movie."

  When Forster originally joined WWZ, the movie was tentatively scheduled to be released in 2010. With Forster now working on Disconnect, WWZ is more likely to arrive in 2012, but with a script revision arriving "in the next few weeks" and a box office landscape currently being ruled by the zombie comedy Zombieland, World War Z may enter theaters sooner rather than later.

  
  

  Posted 10/07/2009 by Ryan

  Related: J. Michael Straczynski | Marc Forster | Max Brooks | Matthew M Carnahan | World War Z

Monday, March 9

• Internet Leaks Kill Forbidden Planet Script

  Loose lips sink scripts! Skewed and Reviewed relays word from screenwriter and Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynzki that he and Warner Bros. have decided to ax his script for the Forbidden Planet remake because of extensive leaks on the internet:

  This is the direct result of the leaks that showed up on the nets, including detailed script reviews of a project that was barely a week old, and which would effectively destroy any anticipation of the movie because by the time it finally reached the screen in 2010 or thereabouts, the story would be old news.

  This seems like a real shame because it was looking like the project had gotten off to an intriguing and original start. Now it's back to the drawing board with a whole lot of extra security, as JMS starts to work on the new script.

  
  

  Posted 03/09/2009 by Bill

  Related: J. Michael Straczynski | Forbidden Planet

Tuesday, December 2

• Forbidden Planet to Explore the Contours of a Million Years from Now

  Tapped to write the script for the remake of the classic 1954 sci-fi flick Forbidden Planet, Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski hints at just how far outside the box he is prepared to think. He is not interested in making the movie look retro. Quite the opposite in fact. He tells MTV that it won't exactly be a remake, a reimagining or a prequel, but "something that no one has thought of when it comes to this storyline." What exactly that might be remains a mystery, but he does drop one intriguing clue about the direction he is thinking. In filling out the background of the alien Krell, Straczynski says "I sat down with some of the nation's best minds in astrophysics and planetary geology and A.I. and asked them -- based on what we know now -- what will a million years from now look like? The goal is to put things in there you've never seen before."

  
  
  

  Forbidden Planet - Trailer

  Posted 12/02/2008 by reelz

  Related: J. Michael Straczynski | Forbidden Planet