When Worlds Collide

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As Spielberg's "Worlds" Turn
Source: E! Online

It's another World for Steven Spielberg.

On the heels of his blockbuster remake of War of the Worlds, the Oscar-winning filmmaker is setting his sights on redoing another 1950s sci-fi classic, When Worlds Collide.

Spielberg has signed on to executive produce the film for Paramount, assuming control of the project from Stephen Sommers. Sommers, whose credits include The Mummy films and Van Helsing, was planning on writing, directing and producing When World Collides, but he dropped out to direct and produce 20th Century Fox's A Night at the Museum, Paramount confirmed Monday.

There has been speculation that Spielberg will also direct the remake, however, no official decision has been announced.

"He's going to be a producer," says Spielberg's publicist, Marvin Levy. "I don't know that it's totally out of the question [that he would direct], but it's probably not likely based on other things potentially on his plate. But he usually doesn't make those decisions until he has received a script."

Spielberg was raised on a diet of sci-fi movies and has cited the original 1951 version of When Worlds Collide as one of his faves. The film helped launch the golden age of science fiction; it tells the story of an astronmer who discovers that two celestial objects--rogue planets--have entered the solar system and are about to have a close encounter with Earth.

The problem however is that the rest of the world thinks the astrophysicist is nuts, and the White House ignores him. With the clock ticking, a fighter pilot, a wealthy industrialist and the scientist band together to build a Noah's Ark-like rocket so a group of people chosen by lottery can escape.

The project isn't exactly new territory for the E.T. mastermind. In 1998, he executive produced the comet-is-coming disaster flick Deep Impact, which took its inspiration from When Worlds Collide.

As Levy noted, if Spielberg does choose to get behind the camera, he will have to find a way to fit the film into his very busy schedule.

The director is currently shooting what's sure to be his next Oscar bid, Munich, a dramatization of the 1972 Munich terrorist attacks and its aftermath. That film is due out Dec. 23. After that he has two other high-profile projects in the pipeline: a biopic on Abraham Lincoln starring Liam Neeson and the long-awaited fourth Indiana Jones adventure with old pals George Lucas and Harrison Ford.

Additionally, Spielberg is producing several other films, including DreamWorks' Memoirs of a Geisha, Sony's Legend of Zorro, and DreamWorks and Paramount's upcoming live-action Transformers movie that's being directed by Michael Bay and set for a July 4, 2007 release.

His latest hit, War of the Worlds, has generated more than $570 million in global ticket sales.

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Deep Impact, which took its inspiration from When Worlds Collide.

What a polite way of putting it.

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Sommers' Worlds Collide
Mummy helmer names his next.

Stephen Sommers, director of action-adventure flicks like The Mummy and Van Helsing, has set his next project for Paramount Pictures, according to today's Variety. Sommers will reportedly write and direct a remake of the 1951 film When Worlds Collide with Steven Spielberg producing.

Sommers had been linked to 20th Centery Fox's A Night at the Museum, but he left after creative differences with the studio and handed it over to director Shawn Levy.

When Worlds Collide is seen as a tentpole project for Paramount. The original, which is based on a 1931 novel of the same name, tells what happens when a group of scientists discover that an errant star (Bellus) and revolving planet (Zyra) are on a collision course with Earth. When the powers that be refuse to hear them out, the group builds their own spaceship with the help of private investors in the hopes of sending a small group of men and women to the approaching planet to start a new civilization.

Sommers is expected to start writing the flick early next year.