We take a look at some upcoming sci-fi movies. . .
Shrapnel
Die Hard 4 director Len Wiseman will adapt Nick Sagan and Mark
Long’s sci-fi graphic novel Shrapnel for the big screen. (Wiseman
will also direct the film for Radical Pictures.)
In the future, humans have colonized the solar system
and formed a Solar Alliance to control all the planets. But a rebellion
breaks out on Venus. Among the rebels fighting for freedom is a former
Marine, a voluntary exile, who teaches the rebels all the tricks of the
art of war . . .
“I am attracted to stories about people who are heroes
despite themselves,” explains Wiseman, who will make the movie in 3D.
Wiseman is also preparing Motorcade and Atlantis Rising for
DreamWorks as well as Gears of War for Legendary Pictures and
Warner, while producing the sci-fi thriller Nonstop for DreamWorks.
Busy guy.
Assault Girls
After Avalon (2001), Japanese film animator and manga writer Mamoru
Oshii (Ghost in the Shell) is making
a new live-action film, Assault Girls. Rinko Kikucho, Meisa Kuroki and
Hinako Saeki will play three seductive huntresses roaming a
post-apocalyptic desert on the trail of giant metamorphic creatures called
“sand whales” that are responsible for destroying the planet. It is worth
noting that Oshii has already directed two short films that are set in
this universe. namely Assault Girl: Kentucky no Hinako with Hinako
Saecki and Assault Girl 2 with Rinko Kikuchi. The film combines
splendid visuals with high-tech special effects and fight scenes.
The
Flock
Television veteran John Wells and Don Murphy (Natural Born Killers,
Transformers) are set to produce a movie
based on James Robert Smith’s novel The Flock. This 2006 novel
tells of the discovery of a flock of giant prehistoric birds living in the
Florida Everglades. When a Disney-style company wants to build a theme
park on the site, an environmentalist tries to protect the birds.
Oblivion
Following a court martial, a wounded soldier is assigned to patrol a
ravaged planet. He must supervise a fleet of robots and droids charged
with a mission to search and destroy the vestiges of a native
extraterrestrial race that has long since disappeared. His new assignment
is a real drag until one day when a spaceship crashes on the planet’s
surface and the hero discovers a woman survivor. She had left on a
scientific mission sixty years before. To her surprise, she somehow
recognizes the soldier. Together, the two must discover the truth behind
the strange set of circumstances into which they have been thrown.
This is the plot for Oblivion, a new project by
Joseph Kosinski (Tron Legacy). “The story is
similar to Twelve Monkeys and I’m
currently seeking an illustrator to create a graphic novel to precede the
film,” declares Kosinski. Kosinski will co-produce the film with Barry
Levine and David Fincher.
World
War Robot
Jerry Bruckheimer has acquired the rights to Ashley Wood’s graphic novel,
World War Robot. The story, told in the form of a journal, recounts
a war waged by a small group of humans against robots on Earth, the moon
and even Mars!
RoboGeisha
Following Machine Girl, RoboGeisha marks the latest collaboration
between director Noboru Iguchi and special effects supervisor Yoshihiro
Nishimura, director of Tokyo Gore Police. It boasts their signature
style: outrageous, extravagant special effects; aggressive, hilarious
gore; mind-boggling weapons, etc. The heroine is of course a humanoid
robot who wields a sword with which she dispatches her adversaries. She
can also able modify her appearance like a Transformer. The film is
currently in postproduction.
Discipline
The 2007 science fiction novel Discipline by Paco Ahlgren describes
the psychological confrontation between a man and an unseen adversary. The
past, present and future of humanity hinges on this fight, which will be
brought to the screen by the producers David Permut and Steve Lee Jones.
Arena
Jeff Wadlow (Cry Wolf) has been selected by the production company
Summit (Twilight) to direct Arena, a
film about a group of modern soldiers that are whisked away to a place
outside of time. Each of them must fight to the death against the best
warriors from history. The omnipotent directors of the Arena eliminate any
who refuse to fight.
Twilight
Zone
Twenty-six years after Twilight
Zone: The Movie, co-created by Joe Dante, John Landis, George Miller
and Steven Spielberg, Warner is preparing a second big screen adaptation
of Rod Serling’s famous television series. Rand Ravich, creator of NBC’s
Life series, producer of Confessions of a Dangerous Man and
screenwriter for both Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh and
Intrusion, will write the script. Leonardo DiCaprio will star.
DiCaprio is also producing a gothic version of Little Red Riding Hood with
a screenplay by David Leslie Johnson (Orphan).
Alien prequel
Ridley Scott, who had proposed video artist Carl Erik Rinsch (who also
happens to be his daughter’s boyfriend!) as director to revive the
Alien franchise for Fox, is apparently
going to direct the film himself. That is unless Fox drops the project of
course. Screenwriter Jon Spaihts is writing the script for this prequel to
the original 1979 movie, which coincidentally is also celebrating its 30th
anniversary this year.
Scott Free, Ridley and Tony Scott’s company, will
produce the film.
Captain
Blood
Captain Blood, the famous Warner film by Michael Curtiz starring
Errol Flynn and adapted from the novel by Rafael Sabatini (Scaramouche),
will soon get a sci-fi makeover. The Australian twin brothers Michael and
Peter Spierig (Undead and the upcoming
Daybreakers) will direct this “remake.”
Produced by Bill Gerber, this futuristic version will be
set in space.
In the 1935 classic, Doctor Peter Blood, arrested for a
crime he didn’t commit and condemned to slavery, stages a mutiny. He and
his fellow prisoners capture a Spanish ship and become pirates.
Harvey
Spielberg plans to direct a remake of Harvey, the much-beloved 1950
starring James Stewart and Josephine Hull. The remake has been in the
works already for several years. Originally based on a play by Pulitzer
Prize winner Mary Chase, Harvey has been adapted for television a few
times. Best-selling author Jonathan Tropper wrote the screenplay this
time, his first ever. Fox acquired the rights last year and will
co-produce the movie with DreamWorks.
The story relates how an amiable eccentric named Elwood
P. Dowd is persuaded he has a guardian angel in the form of a Pooka, a
giant rabbit named Harvey, which he alone can see, and how that
relationship affects each member of his family and community. His sister
seeks the help of a lawyer in an attempt to institutionalize her
troublesome brother. But the tables turn and it is she who winds up in an
asylum.
Shooting will begin early 2010.
The
Invisible Man sequel
David Goyer has written a sequel to James Whale’s classic film The
Invisible Man which he plans to direct as well. He’s been working on
for two years already. “I finished the first draft of the screenplay, and
I’m in the process of revising”, he reports. “Universal seems very
enthusiastic - it’s a movie they want to make.”
The story relates the adventures of a British nephew of
the character played by Claude Rains in the 1933 version. After he
discovers his uncle’s formula for becoming invisible, the Intelligence
Service recruits him during the Second World War . . .
Asteroids
Universal has purchased the rights to the classic 1979 arcade video game
Asteroids. The game has recently been given a 3D update by Michael
Davies in which an Earth space fleet is too busy fighting the Martians
while a giant asteroid threatens our planet. Matthew Lopez will write the
screenplay for this big screen version produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura.
Wanted 2
Timur Bekmambetov has announced that he has found a way to bring Angelina
Jolie’s Wanted character back from the dead for Wanted 2. This
sequel will also see the return of the character played by Konstantin
Khabenskiy. Khabenskiy starred in Night
Watch and Day Watch, the Russian
director’s previous two films. “The film should be made this autumn or
winter with scenes in the US, India and Russia,” says Bekmambetov. The
budget is $150 million.
