Timur Bekmambetov to direct 'Moby Dick' for Universal
09-23-08 | 05:25 PM
#1
Thread Starter
DVD Talk Legend
Timur Bekmambetov to direct 'Moby Dick' for Universal
From Variety:
Some major changes there. Looks like Universal is going for a straight forward, one-dimensional action film.
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."
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."
09-23-08 | 05:32 PM
#2
DVD Talk Hero
Can't wait to see a boat driving on the side of a whale.
... WHAT?!
09-23-08 | 05:42 PM
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We've made too many compromises already; too many retreats. They rewrite classics, and we fall back. They assimilate entire novels, and we fall back. Not again. The line must be drawn here! This far, no further! And I will make them pay for what they've done.
09-23-08 | 08:30 PM
#10
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Maybe the whale broke his tiny ships....
Maybe Green Peace will show up in this version & scream at Ahab for harrassing the whale.
09-23-08 | 08:55 PM
#11
Banned by request
09-23-08 | 10:10 PM
#12
DVD Talk Special Edition
09-24-08 | 12:29 PM
#14
Well, as long as the character of Fedallah is in this movie, I'm all for this (He still has NEVER appeared in any film adaptation I've seen) I bring this up because his purpose and fate has haunted and disturbed me since reading the book as a kid. Bring Fedallah to the screeen, damnit!
09-24-08 | 02:45 PM
#16
DVD Talk Legend
If he can manage to make this badass in a 70's animalsploitation kind of way, then I'm down. Sure, it'll be inane and full of retarded action, but we already should know that going into it.
