20K 2.0...

At first, I was looking at the calendar thinking this was an awfully late April Fool's joke...

Holy crap! It appears the Mouse has been quietly working behind the scenes on a reboot of their reboot of the "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" project. Gone is McG as the director. Gone are the drafts by Bill Marsilli, Justin Marks and Randall Wallace. All their versions are to be swept away and given to someone totally unexpected.

According to The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision blog, David Fincher is in talks to helm the remake/re-imagined take on the tale of Captain Nemo. Scott Z. Burns, who's written "The Bourne Ultimatum," "Contagion," and "The Informant!" is working on the screenplay which will be in the vein of "Star Wars" or "The Empire Strikes Back." Consider me interested, I had no problem with the original screenwriters who worked on this, particularly Randall Wallace, but I have no faith in McG touching something like this. He's a poor man's Michael Bay, and coming from me, that ain't saying something complimentary. But I'm now going to be watching this project with much more enthusiasm.

Now, please don't let Will Smith's name become associated with this...

20,000 Writers Under The Sea...

Actually, it's only the third writer, but it sure does feel like that many sometimes...

Finally, there is good news regarding the Nemo/20K prequel. Justin Marks, who replaced Bill Marsilii is being replaced by "Braveheart" scribe Randall Wallace. This is indeed very good news. Wallace tends to write the kind of sweeping, macho action-adventure that I can see this becoming. And I could see it being good depending on how much of a rewrite it is. Hopefully there'll be more changes coming as well. First off, please let Will Smith choose to film MIB 3 so that he's not available to play in this. Get someone who could fill the bill better, like Eric Bana, hello? Like I keep mentioning. He'd be perfect. Oh, and one last change please. Someone replace McG with a director that knows story. Michael Bay, you need not apply.

Hey, I can dream...

Horseplay...

It seems that the Mouse isn't going to stop making films about thoroughbreds with just the "Horse Soldiers" adaptation that was announced earlier this year...

According the Variety, Randall Wallace will direct "Secretariat" from a script by Mike Rich the tale of the said-named 70's Triple Crown-winning race horse and the relationship with his owner Penny Cherery (to be played by Diane Lane). I guess they're hoping for some "Seabiscuit" type buzz. It's unknown if the film will be under the Touchstone or Walt Disney moniker.

And off they go...

Disney Chases Nazis After All...

Quentin Tarantino's "Inglorious Bastards" may have escaped the Mouse's fingers, but that's not going to stop Mickey from killing a few Nazis...

Walt Disney Studios and Jerry Bruckheimer have acquired screen rights to the novel "Killing Rommel," by Steven Pressfield("The Legend of Bagger Vance", "Gates of Fire"). The story is of a British battalion’s attempt to thwart German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s desert campaign.

Randall Wallace("Braveheart", "We Were Soldiers Once") will co-write the script with Pressfield, while Bruckheimer will produce. No one is attached to direct as of yet.

This should be interesting since Wallace is a very good screenwriter and Pressfield is an excellent novelist(His "Gates of Fire" novel is about the story which insprired the comic book/film adaption of Frank Miller's "300").

Developing...