300 fans (and if the Cinematical reader comments are any indication, that would be all of you), take note. Variety is reporting that much of the creative team behind that "abs n' stabs" action extravaganza is reuniting for a new film called The Last Photograph. Photograph is based on an original idea by 300 director Zack Snyder, and is billed as a drama about "a photograph that becomes the catalyst for a journey two men undertake through war-torn Afghanistan." 300 co-screenwriter Kurt Johnstad will write the film for Snyder to possibly direct. The producers of the film intend to develop the film and then put it up for auction.

Reading between the lines of the Variety article, it seems like Snyder wants to direct the project, but doesn't know if he'll have time. And he doesn't know if he'll have time because he's involved with, like, everything! He's currently shooting the highly anticipated Watchmen (check out an update from Snyder on the film's progress here). He intends to direct an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man (read more about that project here). He may direct Army of the Dead, a "zombies in Vegas" flick you can learn more about right here. And he's co-writing and might direct an action fantasy film called Sucker Punch (which you can read more about here). Though I admired the look of the film, I was no fan of 300. On the other hand, I really loved Snyder's remake of Dawn of the Dead. So consider me cautiously optimistic about all the Snyder in our future.

How do you make a movie from a book of short stories? You do an anthology piece, obviously, and as a framework you use a tattooed man whose body art tells some pretty creepy tales. At least that's how it went down in Jack Smight's 1969 film The Illustrated Man -- which was based on a collection of very cool tales by sci-fi mega-master Ray Bradbury. Anyway, I'm reminding you of this old flick for one very obvious reason: It's remake time.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, none other than Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead, 300) has been invited by Warner Bros. to helm the second adaptation of Bradbury's book. He and screenwriter Alex Tse will begin to tackle The (New) Illustrated Man once they're all finished on their highly-anticipated Watchmen movie. (This is probably a "pre-strike" project we're looking at here.) No word yet on who'll be playing the title character ... anyone have any suggestions on who should be covered in tattoos? It was Rod Steiger last time around, so all bets are off this time.

 

Poor Ray Bradbury. Has his work ever been treated right on the screen? In 1966, François Truffaut clumsily adapted Bradbury's most well-known novel, Fahrenheit 451, about a future society in which information is repressed through the burning of books. The Martian Chronicles became a mixed-bag miniseries starring Rock Hudson in 1980, though it is remembered largely by sci-fi purists and self-styled xenosociologists. It was during Disney's "dark years" in 1983 (which also produced the bleak 1985 animated feature The Black Cauldron) that someone came the closest to capturing Bradbury's spirit when Jack Clayton, with whom Bradbury had worked on the 1956 adaptation of Moby Dick, made Something Wicked This Way Comes (from Bradbury's own screenplay). That trend of misses continues, as the time travel misadventure A Sound Of Thunder is an inept wheel-spin which, at best, will earn a "wait until DVD" (followed by "...and skip it then, too.")