In a sea of unoriginal projects in development, it's such a relief to see something that's so simple, yet outside of the box that it's loaded with potential. Universal Pictures is about to tell a new tale of MOBY DICK, one that's loaded with chaos and destruction. The best part? Genre fav Timur Bekmambeto (Day Watch, Night Watch) is set to bring this giant whale to the big screen. While MOBY DICK could never be the new JAWS, it will be nice to see another trip to the sea with some serious character development behind the action...
Universal Pictures has made a splashy preemptive buy of "Moby Dick," a reimagining of the Herman Melville whale tale that Timur Bekmambetov ("Wanted") will direct.
Studio paid high six figures to Adam Cooper and Bill Collage to pen the screenplay.
The writers revere Melville’s original text, but their graphic novel-style version will change the structure. Gone is the first-person narration by the young seaman Ishmael, who observes how Ahab’s obsession with killing the great white whale overwhelms his good judgment as captain.
This change will allow them to depict the whale’s decimation of other ships prior to its encounter with Ahab’s Pequod, and Ahab will be depicted more as a charismatic leader than a brooding obsessive.
"Our vision isn’t your grandfather’s ‘Moby Dick,’ " Cooper said. "This is an opportunity to take a timeless classic and capitalize on the advances in visual effects to tell what at its core is an action-adventure revenge story."
Scott Stuber is producing with Jim Lemley and Cormac and Marianne Wibberley.
Both Stuber and Bekmambetov have deals at Universal. Bekmambetov will look to apply the visual flourish he displayed on the U summer hit "Wanted."
"We wanted to take a graphic novel sensibility to a classic narrative," said Collage. They brought it to the Wibberlys, the "National Treasure" scribes who are branching into producing and will team with Stuber. The project then caught the fancy of Bekmambetov and Lemley, who teamed with the helmer on "Wanted."
Bekmambetov is developing a sequel to the Angelina Jolie starrer and is also mobilizing and producing a slate of modestly budgeted Russian-language films for Universal’s offshore distribution operations.
Cooper and Collage received credit on the comedy "Accepted" and more recently did rewrite work on the untitled Trump Heist movie, the Tom Bezucha-directed "The People’s House" and the McG-helmed "Nightcrawlers."
WMA made the deal and repped the scribes, Bekmambetov and the Wibberleys.
So your saying this is going to be the '300' version of Moby Dick. I didn't see wanted, but as I am sure the plot sucked, the visual style looked like it was done well. This could be interesting...but we'll see.
Actually, Ive always thought Jaws was the new Moby Dick. Thats not meant as a slight on Jaws by anymeans, but the Gregory Peck version of Moby Dick is awesome.
Myself, I'd thought Jaws was the new Old Man and the Sea, which was the new Moby Dick, which was the new story of Job, which, ironically, is the old Jaws. And every time I hear the title Moby Dick, I keep thinking it's a porno, but anyways.
"Could MOBY DICK become the new JAWS? [...] MOBY DICK could never be the new JAWS" Well, I'm glad we've got BD News to answer its own question in the space of a few sentences. :P
Yeah, I'm not sure how I feel about a "graphic novel" (When will geeks stop trying to sound mature and just call comic books comic books again?) version of MOBY DICK. As for MOBY DICK being the new JAWS, I have to chuckle. JAWS is my absolute favorite movie of all-time (and one of my favorite books), but MOBY DICK is a classic piece of literature that pre-dates it by nearly a century. Kind of a skewed, post-STAR WARS perspective to ponder the possibility of a novel and film from the 1970s being the gold standard which an adaptation of a novel from the 1800s, which has been adapted to the screen three times before, should aspire.
I think MOBY DICK is too complicated a title for this "re-imagining". In the spirit of recent remakes and adaptations, I sincerely hope they'll simplify the title to something that speaks more to the demographic they're aiming for. How about just calling it DICK?
If this works then perhaps we will get meg or a a new jaws finally.
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Universal Pictures has made a splashy preemptive buy of "Moby Dick," a reimagining of the Herman Melville whale tale that Timur Bekmambetov ("Wanted") will direct.
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