After retreating to the safety/sanity of creature effects sculpting in the wake of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Stephen Norrington is ready to try directing again. Really ready. Like Clash of the Titans remake ready.
I don’t know what kind of budget Warner Brothers is thinking of lavishing on this project, but they must be fairly bullish on it it if they were out to Robert Rodriguez a month ago. And while Rodriguez ultimately turned them down, he was sure to compliment Lawrence Kasdan’s rewrite of Travis Beacham’s screenplay on the way out the door. Hopefully, he wasn’t just being nice. It would do my soul good to know that the writer of The Empire Strikes Back, Body Heat, Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Bodyguard* still has it; anything to offset the… "fuckaree" of Dreamcatcher.
If the script is there, I think I still have confidence in Norrington to pull it off – though that’s largely (like 96%) based on Blade (and you can assign three of those remaining percentage points to The Last Minute). Again, so much is going to be contingent on the budget and how adroitly Norrington can use or stretch it. My suggestion: blow it all on Bubo.
Basil Iwanyk is producing for Warner Brothers via his Thunder Road shingle. The studio would like to get principal photography going sometime next year, but that’s assuming they can find "The Next Harry Hamlin" in time.
*The original screenplay (the first Kasdan ever wrote) is surprisingly good. And while I’m sure the movie is still terrible, I’ve got to think it’s acquired some serious camp value in the intervening years.