Now here's a genre I never thought Zack Snyder would tackle -- kids films! Variety reports that Snyder has signed on to direct Guardians of Ga'Hoole, an animated children's film based on the books by Kathryn Lasky.

The story is set in the Forest of Tyto, where Barn Owls live in peace until their kingdom is threatened by an evil that could destroy their home. There are currently 14 books in the series out of a planned 25 -- man, kids books just go on forever these days. It makes Harry Potter look like a picture book. Anyone have kids who are into this series? Is it any good?

It's being penned by two excellent adapters -- John Orloff, who scripted A Mighty Heart, and John Collee, who wrote Master and Commander. There must be something good there to warrant those two. Few realize that Snyder has young children (his son is a young and battered Leonidas in 300), so he's probably aiming to make a film they can actually watch. It's being put on the fast track by Warner Bros with an expected release of 2009 or 2010.

Depending on what your take was on the film version of the horror video game Silent Hill , this could be either very good or very bad news. IGN News is reporting that Christophe Gans, who directed the console-to-screen horror Silent Hill back in 2006, has signed on to direct a big screen version of the Capcom action title Onimusha. The story focuses on a 16th Century Samurai who is after a resurrected bad-guy and on a mission to save a princess -- think of it like Mario Brothers but with way more mortal wounds. Gans will be working from a Leslie Kruger and John Collee (Master and Commander) script, and while there is no word on a cast so far, already several studios have expressed interest in the project.

According to IGN, Gans is currently in Cannes shopping around the $70 million production and with no shortage of enthusiasm, was quoted as saying, "I have loved the Onimusha story for years and am overjoyed to have the opportunity now to bring it to life for worldwide film audiences and to access the unparalleled film resources of China to do so on the scale that the story demands." Production is set to begin later this year and already Gans and producing partners Davis Films are eyeing a release in December 2009. Not to be picky about the whole thing but from what I remember of the games – other than that they were kind of repetitive, was that they are set in Japan, not China. But then again, maybe $70 million doesn't cover that kind of location cost.

Hollywood loves dueling biopics -- Columbus, Capote, Amy Fisher; if there's more than one source to mine from, there's more than one movie to be made. The latest figure to get head-to-head films is Charles Darwin. Though I haven't heard anything more on Chase Palmer's take, titled Evolution's Captain, since I wrote about it last November, it is supposed to be released some time in 2009. If that remains true, it will have some company, because Oscar-winning producer Jeremy Thomas is also planning to deliver a Darwin film the same year (the bicentennial of the naturalist's birth).

Thomas' version will be based on "Annie's Box" (aka "Darwin, His Daughter and Human Evolution"), a bio written by Darwin's descendant Randal Keynes. While Palmer's film should deal more with Darwin's scientific explorations, this one will be centered more on the naturalist's home life, particularly with the death of his daughter Annie, which he blamed on inbreeding (Darwin married his first cousin). The adaptation is being written by John Collee, who I had actually thought would be appropriate for Palmer's film, and will be directed by Jon Amiel. A good guess is that Keynes' son Skandar, who acts in the Narnia films, will get a part as one of Darwin's kids (he had 10).

Other dueling biopics headed your way:

Miles Davis

Marvin Gaye

Chet Baker

Napoleon

Can you imagine any post-WWII literature being remade and re-imagined as much as the classics of the 19th and early 20th Centuries? Maybe it's just too early. Maybe when I'm an old man, there will be countless adaptations of the Harry Potter books in the way there are presently many versions of Stoker's Dracula, Dickens' A Christmas Carol and Burroughs' Tarzan.

The constant reworking of classics, like Tarzan, likely has something to do with earlier films being too safe or censored. This accounts for remakes being sold as being truer to their source or as being an edgier revisit to something that exists as too innocent and simple in the consciousness of pop culture. The stories of Tarzan have been depicted as everything from childish adventures to mature drama, but Warner Bros. believes there is still another way to tell the tale of the man brought up in the wild.

The studio is looking at John Collee to write a script -- hopefully with Master and Commander in mind more than Happy Feet -- and Guillermo Del Toro to direct. The Pan's Labyrinth filmmaker would possibly be interested in taking on the project following the making of Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. Del Toro doing Tarzan? We know you have an opinion on this one ...