And Brad will interview the survivors (Film News - 24/07/10)

Comic-con is upon us once again. It looks like a lot of fun but let's be honest it is to film news what the budget speech is to financial news. Lots of ceremony and sales pitching with all the important news having been leaked weeks ago. With that in mind most of this weeks stuff concerns nuggets released from the first half of the week with the major exception of our top story:

World War Z

Max Brooks' novel about the zombie apocalypse was awesome in two main ways. First and primarily it features a Zombie apocalypse. Second it takes that and does something truly original by structuring the book around a selection of interviews with the survivors. It's an audacious move that Hollywood should be very wary of following appropriately, make it too much like the book and you'll turn off the audiences, move too far away and you have a generic Zombie flick that could be based on any property.

Naturally this complex tightrope isn't putting off any writers and the planned adaptation is still on, and still has Brad Pitt attached in a key role, according to Brooks himself. There's no news on the role Pitt will be playing although it's more likely to be the interviewer linking the various stories than any of the individual interview subjects. Either way this is certainly one to look out for.

The book - truly awesome.

Read on for sheriffs, outlaws and gifted musicians.



Earp: Saint for Sinners

I realise that science fiction boils down to westerns in space and I have no problems with classic of the Wild West being adapted to "the final frontier" but transporting a character synonymous with the OK Corral into a future earth seems plain lazy. Such is is with this yet-to-be-published graphic novel which has already been optioned possibly in response to the general fanboy anticipation of Cowboys vs. Indians. In the comic the legendary and very real Wyatt Earp finds himself in a dystopian future where the international financial system has collapsed and the only way to make money is in Vegas (!!!???). I'm sure this will be great on page, and may even work as a film, but why use Earp? Why not create an original character?

Son of Scarface

Hollywood's heavily contagious case of sequelitis claims new victims as a return to 1983's Scarface directed by Brian de Palma. Whilst Al Pacino's Tony won't be getting a chance to reappear - mainly due to the characters death - the proposed follow-up may focus on his son's rise to prominence in the seedy underbelly of Florida drug crime. The big question on everyone lips (apart from why bother) is will Son of have an equally impressive little friend (left)?

Untitled Kurt Cobain Project

Surprisingly it has taken over 15 years for a legitimate biopic of the iconic musician (below), leaving aside Gus van Sant's Last Days which is at most superficially about the singer, so it's good news to his fans that Oren Moverman (The Messenger) is set to write and direct an adaptation of Cobain life. Good news for cinephiles too as Moverman was one of the writers behind I'm Not There proving that he can deconstruct the biopic formula and finds something interesting about the very idea of Kurt Cobain.