If Orson Welles had gotten his way, there may never have been a Citizen Kane. Upon being lured to Hollywood by RKO with an offer of unheard of creative freedom for a first-time filmmaker (following Welles’ news-making stints on stage and radio), the boy wonder set out to make his first film — an adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Never content being normal, Welles wanted to shoot on location in the jungle and to tell the story using POV camerawork for the central character of Charles Marlow, making it the Cloverfield of African-set symbolism about the dark duality of man’s nature. But RKO was all, “No dice; too expensive.” So eventually we got Citizen Kane. Then, of course, we all know about the next big screen adaptation of Conrad’s novel, Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. Coppola had his own kooky ideas for the film, such as moving the events from the Congo to Vietnam and ignoring Roger Corman’s advice not to shoot in Southeast Asia during the rainy season. Well, now it is time for another big screen adaptation of Conrad’s novel, with its own lil’ twist…
Outer space.
That’s right. Like Pinhead, Jason, the Leprechaun and the Critters before him, Kurtz is going into space. The above pic is some concept art (courtesy of ComingSoon) from Into Darkness; which IMDb Pro currently lists as the the film’s title. The script was written by Tony Giglio, Branden R. Morgan, and Ted Field, and the project currently has Peter Cornwell (The Haunting in Connecticut; ugh) attached to direct. Which surely fills you all with confidence.
The film describes itself as thus:
APOCALYPSE 2388. Earth is on the brink of extinction. Legendary explorer KURTZ has been sent on a desperate last bid mission to scout an unknown planet on the far side of the universe. A planet that may sustain human life. But communication with Kurtz mysteriously ceases and rookie flight officer MARLOW is assigned the perilous task of completing the objective. Tracking Kurtz into the unknown he reaches it. A new earth. And a race of beings at the dawn of time. But Kurtz has his own plans for the new world and man’s last hope for survival. And to achieve it he will take man to the only place that will protect paradise. Into darkness.
I see.
Well, I love stupid shit like this. So sure, if someone wants to waste money making this, I’ll waste my Netflix viewing time watching it after it tanks at the box offices. Count me in. Ditto for the Moby Dick in space film that I know was produced earlier this year (and will likely go straight to SyFy). Then I will wait patiently for the outer space adaptations of The Old Man and the Sea and The Great Gatsby.