Producer Gary Kurtz was recently all over the webz for keeping it real on Star Wars in an LA Times interview. In the interview it was mentioned that he was doing an upcoming film with WETA called Panzer 88. Well, now Kurtz has done yet another interview with the Times, for Hero Complex, in which he reveals details about said WETA project. There’s also two concept art pics (I did not include the coolest looking one).
The film is being co-written and directed by Hellboy co-writer, Peter Briggs. Hero Complex says of the film: “The project has the same sort of mash-up cinematic spirit as Jon Favreau’s upcoming “Cowboys and Aliens” (classic western meets UFO invasion) or the 1980s John McTiernan classic “Predator” (commando adventure meets sci-fi horror). For “Panzer,” the hybrid is between the supernatural and the battlefields of World War II; to fans of a certain age, the premise might stir an old comic-book memory — “Haunted Tank” and “Weird War Tales” often marched into similar battle zones of the macabre.“
One of the film’s other writers, Aaron Mason, adds: “The story features German protagonists on the Eastern Front of Russia in October 1944, and Peter and myself labored to anchor the story in the real history of the time, right down to charting actual troop movements. The few tank movies that are out there, like ‘Kelly’s Heroes’ or ‘The Battle of the Bulge,’ are fairly slow affairs, which is the furthest thing from ‘Panzer’ which shifts at breakneck speed. We’ve an occult slant to our story, like Michael Mann’s movie, ‘The Keep,’ although that movie’s pretty solemn and plodding, which is so not us.“
Color me intrigued. Head over to Hero Complex to hear the rest and get a look at some concept tank art.