We've been tracking stories on an alleged FORBIDDEN PLANET remake since the days of Stan Winston and Irvin Kershner involvement... to a small stint with Cameron... to when De Luca picked up the property for New Line, when Frank Darabont came aboard. De Luca seemed quite taken with the idea of remaking FORBIDDEN PLANET, and when he first picked up those rights around late February 2000, he and I got into an e-mail dialogue back and forth that I reported on here! Darabont left the project at New Line, and picked up FAHRENHEIT 451 for his Science Fiction appetite instead. And of course De Luca left NEW LINE all together...
Now he's at DREAMWORKS so when New Line's option on the project expired yesterday, De Luca instantly snatched up the rights. When we talked all those months ago he saw the project as a serious science fiction film. Nothing campy or hokey... He wanted to take the framework of Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST and see what a writer like Brian Aldiss or Arthur C. Clarke or ya know... a super genius would do with it. He was approaching major A-list director types... folks like James Cameron, Frank Darabont. They say that they are going to be getting a writer on the project very soon. Personally, for my money, I'd get Scott Frank... The work he did on MINORITY REPORT for Spielberg was, according to those in the know, quite remarkable... I just hope Dreamworks and De Luca take their time making this one right. But hell... even if they screw it up, who cares... the original is still safe upon my DVD shelf (wanting desperately a super edition DVD!!!)
