PeterChernin Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Before our generation comes to a close, all of ancient history and mythology will have been filmed through a Zack Snyder / Frank Miller lens. Variety reports that the next ancient text to get the green-screened sepia treatment is the tale of Moses. Yes, Ten Commandments Moses.

20th Century Fox and its new big dog, Peter Chernin, have snapped up a pitch to retell "Let my people go!" in 300 fashion, and put Adam Cooper and Bill Collage to work penning a script. You might not remember their names now, but they're also pairing up with Timur Bekmambetov to remake the story of Moby Dick in a 300 "graphic novel style." Variety notes that all the elements you know and love from the story of Moses will be there (the Red Sea, the plague of locusts, the golden calf) but they will also incorporate "brand new elements" drawn from Midrashic sources. I wonder if they'll also find a way to include the scene with Zipporah rescues their son from the Lord by circumcising him? Because they could do some slow motion blood splatter with that.

Being an irreligious sort, I find the idea silly instead of offensive but it's possible that a lot of moviegoers could find this very disrespectful to their faith. Will it spur on copycat projects? Will other studios go "Why didn't we think of the Bible?", abandon Greek texts, and start producing 300 versions of Maccabees? Judges? 1 and 2 Kings? There's a lot of gory tales just waiting to be revamped with green screen.

It's been nearly two months since Leonardo DiCaprio optioned a new project, and he must have thought we would start calling him lazy. In August, Monika reported that he had 25 projects in various stages of pre-production, and now you can add a 26th, as Variety says he's attached to star in The Deep Blue Goodbye, an adaptation of John D. MacDonald's 1964 thriller.

Goodbye is the first of MacDonald's Travis McGee series, which spanned the course of 21 novels. McGee is like a beach bum version of James Bond, a bachelor who happily resides on a houseboat named the Busted Flush. (To add to his cool, he won it in a poker game.) He works as a freelance "salvage consultant," which means he tries to retrieve money or property that a client has been wrongfully deprived of. His life is one of money, adventure, dames, and weird villains all set against sunny Florida, some of whom he'll "bend way, way, over, but not break." Sexy stuff!

To be fair, DiCaprio has reportedly been attached to produce and play McGee for some time, but the movie reporting world learned about it thanks to Fox's new executive Peter Chernin, who is coming aboard Goodbye as producer alongside DiCaprio and his Appian Way partner Jennifer Davisson Killoran. Dana Stevens is penning the script, and the film does not yet have a start date. With DiCaprio's ever growing slate, this post could be long forgotten by the time Goodbye sails in front of the camera.