J. J. Abrams Will Produce an Earthquake

The creator of Lost plans to shake things up again on the big screen. J. J. Abrams will produce a disaster movie featuring an earthquake for Universal Pictures, according to The Hollywood Reporter. It will not, however, be a remake of the 1974 Charlton Heston-starring Earthquake (pictured), which was directed by Mark Robson and released by Universal.

That movie led with an hour of soap opera before unleashing its monster quake upon Los Angeles. Coming three years after a real-life quake rocked the city and featuring Sensurround at selected theaters (imagine a sub-woofer under your seat turned up really really loud -- I thought it was a tremendous boon for cinema at the time), Earthquake is one movie that could be remade without much complaint. Trust me -- I've seen it five times.

Instead, Abrams is working with David Seltzer (The Omen and Lucas but also the abysmal Six Weeks, Table for Five and Punchline) to craft a completely unrelated yet still rockin' disaster. As is Abrams' wont, no plot details are being revealed, though THR says "relationships will be at the core of the project." We don't even know which city will be destroyed! But I'm guessing we'll wonder who will live and who will die, Cloverfield-style.

Abrams is, of course, finishing up his Starlost Star Trek remake, which is due out in May 2009. (And did you see those character posters?) Right now he only plans to produce the new earthquake movie.