Robert Zemeckis

[modage]

just make a real fucking movie man. what happened to you?

 

[RegularKarate]

You guys just don't get it, do you?  The poor man is afraid of human skin.

[MacGuffin]

Disney, Zemeckis enter 'Dark Life'
Studio and ImageMovers to adapt young adult novel
Source: Variety

Disney and Robert Zemeckis are eyeing the ocean floor as the setting for a new family franchise.

The Mouse House and ImageMovers have wrapped a deal to partner with the Gotham Group to adapt Kat Falls' upcoming young adult novel "Dark Life," with Zemeckis attached to direct.

Book is set in a near-future world in which rising ocean levels and natural catastrophes have led some people to homestead on the ocean floor, and kids to develop supernatural powers. Story centers on an underwater teenage boy and a surface girl who join forces to uncover a government conspiracy.

Project fits in well with Disney's new mandate to create family friendly fare that can be exploited across the company's various platforms and spawn sequels.

The Gotham Group won the rights to "Dark Life" after making a preemptive bid to buy the manuscript earlier this year (Daily Variety, Jan. 25). Book will be published by Scholastic in May, backed by a major marketing push. Two books had initially been planned, but could now expand to more installments.

Zemeckis, Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey will produce through ImageMovers with Jackie Levine shepherding the project for the shingle. Ellen Goldsmith-Vein and Lee Stollman will produce through Gotham.

Whether the film will be produced using Zemeckis' favored performance-capture process has yet to be determined. In a cost-cutting move, Disney last month said it will pull the plug on ImageMovers Digital, based in Marin County, Calif., by the end of the year once "Mars Needs Moms" wraps. The facility produced the performance-capture work on "The Polar Express," "Beowulf" and "A Christmas Carol."

ImageMovers is still developing Disney's remake of "The Yellow Submarine" and is behind an adaptation of "Airman," based on Eoin Colfer's kids' book, and "The Stoneheart Trilogy," a young-adult fantasy book series by Charlie Fletcher, also at the Mouse House.

Gotham's recent credits include "The Spiderwick Chronicles" for Paramount/Nickelodeon Movies. The company's upcoming slate includes "Quantum Quest," a large-format 3D CGI film based on NASA's Cassini Mission; "Saving Juliet" at Disney; "The Maze Runner" and "The Devil You Know" at 20th Century Fox; and "Wicked" and "Stargirl" at DreamWorks.

Falls is a graduate screenwriting program professor at Northwestern U.

[Stefen]

Is it original? Zemeckis is like the square ass white dude version of Tim Burton.

[MacGuffin]

Robert Zemeckis May Direct 'Superman'; Also Returning to Live Action and Time Travel
Source: Cinematical

First of all: apparently Robert Zemeckis is also a rumored candidate for the next 'Superman' movie. But that's not what we're here to talk about. The big news is, even if he doesn't take on the Man of Steel, the guy currently synonymous with motion-capture animation is possibly targeting his first live-action feature in ten years. Deadline reports the 'Back to the Future' filmmaker (who also played a little with the fourth dimension in 'Contact' and 'A Christmas Carol') will likely helm another "big tent pole" time travel picture called 'Timeless,' which will be scripted by Mike Thompson ('Love Happens'). Zemeckis and his ImageMovers company will at least produce the project at Warner Bros.

This makes a lot of sense, not necessarily because we dislike his mo-cap work but because his last live-action effort, 'Cast Away,' made more money worldwide than anything he's directed since. The news also comes at a perfect time, when fans are excited about the re-release of 'BTTF' next month as well as Christopher Lloyd's own return to the concept of time travel with an upcoming 3-D IMAX film. Of course, no matter what his next gig is, first he's working on the mo-cap remake of the animated Beatles flick 'The Yellow Submarine' (due in 2012).

While nothing is known yet about the plot of 'Timeless,' if Zemeckis does direct we can be hopeful it will feature some sort of groundbreaking special effects (his previous visual effects Oscar-winners include 'Death Becomes Her,' Forrest Gump' and 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit'). But will it be as timeless a movie as that classic trilogy with Marty McFly and Doc Brown? Will it be in demand for a re-release in 25 years? That's to be determined, but we'll definitely be keeping tabs on this and relay further info as we learn more about it.

[MacGuffin]

Paramount Wants To Take 'Flight' With Robert Zemeckis
BY MIKE FLEMING | Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount Pictures is in early discussions with Robert Zemeckis to direct Flight, a live-action feature that has been scripted by John Gatins. Zemeckis, who has focused for the last decade on directing and producing performance capture animation films, last directed a live-action film with 2000's Cast Away. Flight has similar harrowing moments to the unforgettable airplane crash that left Tom Hanks stranded on a deserted island. The fictional tale revolves around a commercial airline pilot named Whip Whitaker. When his plane malfunctions and a crash seems imminent, he saves the day with some heroic flying and manages to land the plane with minimal casualties. He's instantly hailed as a hero, but as an investigation into the cause of the crash unfolds, it becomes clear that he was flying under the influence of drugs and alcohol. The film is the pilot's journey as he is encouraged to wear a hero label he thinks he doesn't deserve, while the pilot's union and airline try to keep the facts under cover because of the high stakes involved. Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald are producing.

Gatins, who scripted Real Steel and just signed on to script the sequel to that Hugh Jackman-starrer, had long intended to direct Flight. But Zemeckis has been looking hard at a number of scripts to mark his return to live-action directing, and Paramount became very interested in making a deal with the director. This is a situation that could happen very quickly --there is a nascent plan to begin production by late summer --or crash land because the dealmaking with Zemeckis is very pricey, and Flight is more of a modest character study than some of the director's past hits like the Back to the Future films or Forrest Gump. It will be nice to see Zemeckis making live-action features again. Beowulf was interesting, but I always found the performance capture footage to be a bit off-putting. Audiences felt the same way in the latest Zemeckis-produced effort, Mars Needs Moms, which bombed for Disney. Stay tuned.

[MacGuffin]

Robert Zemeckis In Talks To Direct Tom Hanks In 3D Toy Adaptation ‘Major Matt Mason’
Source: Playlist

The colossal failure of motion-capture animation “Mars Needs Moms,” and the subsequent cancellation by Disney on the planned performance capture remake of “Yellow Submarine,” seems to have given Robert Zemeckis, something of a pioneer of the format, pause for thought. The director of mega-hits like “Back to the Future” and “Forrest Gump” hasn’t made a live action picture since 2000’s double bill of “What Lies Beneath” and “Cast Away,” but recent months have seen him linked to any number of potential projects starring real people, rather than dead-eyed facsimiles, including a remake of “The Wizard of Oz” (not happening, thank God), “The Man of Steel,” a sequel to “Roger Rabbit,” and long-gestating time travel romance “Replay.” Zemeckis looks to have finally picked his next project, airline pilot drama “Flight,” with Denzel Washington, which will start shooting this fall, but it seems like he might be lining something up for after that: The Hollywood Reporter talked to Gary Goetzman, Tom Hanks’ partner in Playtone Productions, at the ScreenSingapore festival, where he revealed that Hanks may be reteaming with his director on “Forrest Gump” and “Cast Away” for a big-budget 3D adaptation of the retro toy “Major Matt Mason”. Mason was a Mattel astronaut toy, popular for about a decade in the golden age of the space race, a childhood favorite of Hanks’s, and arguably a major influence on Buzz Lightyear in the “Toy Story” franchise. Mason and his companions could be pitched against a series of bizarre aliens including Captain Lazer, Callisto and Or. Playtone have had the rights to the character for a couple of years, but the reports of Zemeckis’ involvement is the first concrete movement on the film. The script is by Hanks himself, and “Speed” and “Justified” writer Graham Yost—should Zemeckis sign on, the plan is that the film will be a $100 million dollar space adventure, shot in 3D. While the idea of yet another movie based on a toy makes us sigh a little (and we’re doubtful that the property means much to anyone but nostalgic baby boomers), a retro space flick could be kind of fun, if Zemeckis can get his mojo back.

[MacGuffin]

Robert Zemeckis Boards Fox's 'Barefoot Bandit' Film (Exclusive)
David Gordon Green previously was attached to direct but has moved on to the horror tale "Suspiria."
Source: THR

Robert Zemeckis has come on board the Fox crime drama Taking Flight: The Hunt for a Young Outlaw.

Zemeckis will develop the project as a potential directing vehicle. Taking Flight previously had David Gordon Green developing to direct, but he has turned his attentions to the horror pic Suspiria, which is scheduled to begin shooting next month.

Zemeckis is overseeing the Taking Flight screenplay and is waiting for Milk scribe Dustin Lance Black to deliver the latest draft.

The true story centers on 18-year-old Colton Harris-Moore, who became a cult hero for a string of crimes that baffled local police, Homeland Security and the FBI. Known as the "Barefoot Bandit" due to his preference to prowl without footwear, Harris-Moore is considered a modern-day Robin Hood, with his exploits gaining tens of thousands of fans on Facebook.

Taking Flight marks something of a departure for Zemeckis, who typically works in the family-friendly sphere. He most recently directed the Denzel Washington starrer Flight for Paramount, which will be released Nov. 2. He also helmed the 2009 film A Christmas Carol.