Randall Wallace Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The klaxons are sounding for the Nautilus and Captain Nemo's origin story. Variety reports that Disney has quietly shelved the project, and McG has been released from duty in order to seek better fortune ashore.

The project was scheduled to begin production this February, and was on a fast track under Dick Cook. But as you probably remember, Cook was shown the door a few months ago. Many of Disney's big projects seem to be left dangling as stars like Johnny Depp decide whether they're sailing or staying ashore. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo is just the latest, though Disney insists big popcorn flicks will still be a focus for them.

Leagues had already been a revolving door of rumors, with Will Smith said to be in the running to play Nemo. Justin Marks was originally penning the script, but was replaced by Randall Wallace this past July. Variety reports that the project was being penned by Bill Marsilli, so presumably Wallace was off as well. While it's not unusual to have three screenwriters on a project, it doesn't sound like this submarine had a reliable captain. Perhaps the Nautilus will sail again as a proper steampunk picture that explores his romantic Indian past, and not a slapdash summerfest.

Two months after being replaced on the He-Man movie Greyskull, Justin Marks has lost another big screenwriting gig: McG's Captain Nemo: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. You can speculate and snicker all you like. In the meantime, The Hollywood Reporter says that screenwriter Randall Wallace has been brought aboard to rewrite the script before taking his directing job with Disney's Secretariat. (So handy to have those screenwriter / director guys just hanging around the studio!)

20,000 Leagues is being envisoned by Disney as an origin story for Captain Nemo, and that nifty little colon after his name indicates that they'd like to make him over into a nautical franchise to complement their ongoing Pirates of the Caribbean series. Everyone is kind of hoping they'll draw on Jules Verne, and explore Nemo's background as given in that lesser-known sequel, The Mysterious Island. He was revealed to be the Indian Prince Dakkar, who had lost his wife, children, and kingdom after participating in the rebellion of 1857.

While the film is being labeled as an action-adventure, I think it's extremely likely that Wallace is being brought on board precisely to flesh out that tragic backstory, and up the anti-imperialism. This is the screenwriter of Braveheart, Pearl Harbor, and The Man in the Iron Mask, after all. If he has a specialty, it's perilous wartime romances, especially if they're set against the backdrop of revolution. We're probably in for a very frothy 20,000 Leagues, but at least its steampunk setting allows for that. Now cast Naveen Andrews so it'll be sexy steampunk.

Diane Lane's grabbing the reins in Disney's new film Secretariat. Lane will be starring as Penny Chenery, a housewife who takes over her father's thoroughbreeding farm after he falls ill. She learns the ropes fast, and her horse Secretariat goes on to win the 1973 Triple Crown. Secretariat will focus on her relationship with the prize-winning horse, which is a nice change from movies focusing on relationships between, say, Lane and Richard Gere as in 2008's weepy Nights in Rodanthe.

Randall Wallace, who wrote the screenplays for Atlas Shrugged, We Were Soldiers, Pearl Harbor, and Braveheart, is directing; he also directed We Were Soldiers and The Man in the Iron Mask. Mike Rich is behind the script; he also penned similarly inspirational flicks The Nativity Story, The Rookie, and Finding Forrester.

Secretariat sounds a little bit Seabiscuit-y and a little bit you-go-girl, with a distinct possibility for sappiness. Is Disney aiming for Diane Lane's demo or horse-loving young girls? It's too early to tell, but I'm just happy to see a movie with a strong female lead who isn't just interested in shoes and dudes. And despite some missteps with films like the aforementioned Nights in Rodanthe,Jumper, and Untraceable, Diane Lane pretty much rocks.

All right girls, which one of you out there sold your soul for Jamie Fraser to finally make it to the big screen? Because you succeeded! According to Variety, Essential Films has optioned the enormously popular Outlander series, and snagged none other than Braveheart scribe Randall Wallace to write it. The script is being shopped out to directors as we speak, with an eye to making it a franchise.

For those of you who haven't had the pleasure, Outlander is a series of historical romance novels by Diana Gabaldon. They center on Claire Randall, a strong-willed English nurse who has just been reuinted with her husband after World War II. While on a second honeymoon, Claire steps through a stone circle and is swept back to 18th century Scotland. She becomes ensnared in the life of the Fraser clan -- and is forced to marry the impossibly handsome Jamie Fraser. And then the sex begins.

While there are a lot of very good adventures and plot twists (and the series is much more historically accurate and well written than the usual bodice ripper), I think we can be honest and admit it was the sex that kept everyone going back. While Claire ostensibly wants to get back to her own time and husband, it doesn't stop her from having fun with Jamie every time there's a flat surface. Of course, it turns out that true love is clad in a Fraser kilt, and all ends reasonably well. I confess, I never read past the second book, so I don't know what further diasters await the passionate couple.

Fans have been clamoring for this series to be made since the first book was published -- and I'm surprised it has taken as long as it has. It couldn't have gotten a more perfect writer than Wallace, that's what makes this positively eerie. Now if Gerard Butler signs on to play Jamie, I'm really going to know the dark arts were involved.

Will Smith really wants a crack at the ancient history epic, and this time it looks like he's going to get it. According to Variety, Smith has hired the go-to guy for historical epics, Randall Wallace, to pen The Last Pharaoh for him to star in.

It won't actually be about the last pharaoh of Egypt (Cleopatra still holds that distinction),
but Taharqa, a member of the Nubian dynasty of Egypt, who ruled from 690 to 664 B.C.E. Mentioned by Greek historian Strabo as one of the greatest military tacticians in the world, he's believed to be Tirhakah, king of Ethopia, who's mentioned in the Old Testament as driving Assyrian king Sennacherib away from destroying Jerusalem. Taharqa wasn't just a fighter, though -- he was devoted to peaceful works like restoring temples, and building sanctuaries all over Nubia and Egypt. Nevertheless, his biggest claim to fame is fighting the Assyrians, who invaded Egypt in 677. He didn't exactly defeat them -- they took Memphis and established the 26th dynasty, and Taharqa was driven back to Nubia, where he died in 664.

It definitely has the potential of an action packed story, but I'm curious as to how it's going to be fleshed out. With Wallace (nearly) at the helm, I am willing to bet Taharqa will become a mix of King Leonidas and William Wallace. The saving of Jerusalem is, I think, the high point of the story and has the most historical relevance ... but it's not as romantic as defending one's homeland, and that's reportedly what the film will focus on. And Wallace's scripts tend to be heavy on the romance, iffy on the accuracy. Still, it will be very interesting to see Smith in a sword-and-sandals epic, and I'll watch ancients hack each other onscreen anytime. What about you?

News bites for your Tuesday:

• In the wake of failed attempts at the Triple Crown and terrible horse injuries, Variety reports that Disney is getting ready to revel in Big Red, Secretariat. Mike Rich wrote the script, and Randall Wallace has signed on to direct. The film will focus on the story of owner Penny Chenery, and how she took over her father's horse farm, was slapped with a huge inheritance tax upon his death, and still managed to save the farm and horse. Secretariat then became the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years.
• On the more artsy side of things, Variety reports that Taylor Hackford is cooking up a film called Tenn, focusing on "the formative years" of Tennessee Williams. Robin Shushan wrote the screenplay, which delves into the playwright's "tumultuous upbringing -- complete with a scornful father, depression, conflicts about sexuality and watching his beloved sister institutionalized and lobotomized." In other words, a rip-roaring laugh fest. The project is said to be similar to Capote and how tragedy can breed success.
• Lastly, The Hollywood Reporter posts that Alexander Belyaev's The Amphibian is headed for the big screen, courtesy of Stone Village Pictures. The hunt is underway for a screenwriter, and the company is planning comic books/graphic novel adaptations to accompany the film. It's a strange twist of a story -- an American surgeon in the Amazon saves his son from a fatal respiratory disease by giving him shark gills. But when the underwater kid saves a girl from a shark attack, things get complicated as they fall for each other. It's like Aquaman meets Splash!
  

In June, Gold Circle Films bought the rights to The Arcanum, which had previously been picked up by Miramax in 1999. Maybe they were afraid of another high-profile flop like The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, since this project treads on similar territory. Whatever the case, it was a project looking for a more loving home, and Gold Circle is certainly providing that. The Hollywood Reporter has posted that the company has already found the project's helmer -- writer/director Randall Wallace (The Man in the Iron Mask). He's going to be polishing the script and then sending it out to the world of casting.

I'm really, really hoping they do something cool with this, because the idea is great. Adapted from a novel by Thomas Wheeler, Arcanum is set in 1919 and "follows Arthur Conan Doyle as he leads a secret society known as the Arcanum -- whose members include magician Harry Houdini, voodoo priestess Marie Laveau, and horror writer H.P. Lovecraft -- against a powerful supernatural force that threatens the world." Sure, it could very easily stink like League, which disappointed me greatly, but there's always a chance for this one to rise from the ashes of apprehension. And it can start with great casting. Personally, I'd like to see Robert Downey Jr. take on Houdini, and would be easy-going to the casting of the rest. But how about you? These are some pretty distinct people, so who do you think should play them?

When Ryan spoke with Angelina Jolie last June, she had told us that her big-screen treatment of Ayn Rand's classic political novel Atlas Shrugged wasn't exactly ready for production. Last October, Lionsgate secured a writer for the film, but Jolie told us that "... we have not had all the pieces come together. There's not been a director that's right to come on, or all of those elements. So until it does, you know, I certainly don't want to be a part of something that's just put together to hit 'this date'". So here we are two months later, and Variety is now reporting that Vadim Perelman has been hired to direct the literary property, and also to perform a re-write on the script. Perelman will be updating the original draft written by Braveheart scribe Randall Wallace. If you're familiar with the 'heft' of Ayn Rand's novels, then you have an idea of how difficult it will be to trim down a 1,100-plus page novel into a two hour film.

Rumors of the project had been kicking around since last year, when in the height of all that "Brangelina" nonsense, there was talk that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie would be working together on the film (rumors that have long since been discredited). But now that a director is in place, it seems the project is closer to becoming a reality. Vadim Perelman will be in Toronto later this week for TIFF to present his latest, In Bloom, with Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood. Since Angelina Jolie is expected to be accompanying Brad Pitt to the festival, maybe they can make it a working vacation. Jolie is still shooting the comic-book adaptation Wanted and is already scheduled to start work this fall on Clint Eastwood's The Changeling. According to Variety, Lionsgate is planning a start date for Atlas Shrugged in early 2008 -- so much for taking a year off, huh Ang?