TheHunger Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Just because Tony Scott decided to put the brakes on his A L I E N prequel, doesn't mean that he won't have plenty of projects to keep him busy in the meantime. For starters; there's his Warriors update, a sequel to his 1983 vampire flick, The Hunger, and the action flick Unstoppable with Chris Pine starting this fall. But that's not all, because now the director has been talking about an adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's non-fiction classic, Hell's Angels. In an interview with Coming Soon, Scott confirmed that Traffic's Stephen Gaghan has already been hired to write the script, and while Scott claims to own the rights to Thompson's book, there is still confusion over what Gaghan will be using for the script. According to the "motorcycle club's" legal counsel, Scott's film will be based on the book, Hell's Angels: The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club -- but my guess is that the script will be a blending of the two books.

The Wild One may have brought bikers into the popular consciousness, but by the time the 60's hit, clubs like The Hell's Angels were a status symbol for the counter-culture. Thompson's book was one of the first accurate looks inside the 'gang', but was a far cry from his usual 'gonzo' work. Which isn't necessarily the best fit for the kind of flashy action movie you expect from Scott, but luckily Gaghan has a knack for making sense of complicated subject matter. There is no word yet on whether Scott will just produce, or whether he will direct the film as well. But, the Scott brothers seem to have a thing for packing their schedules, and unfortunately, they tend to bite off a little more than they can chew.

After the jump; updates on Tony Scott's other projects...

It's been a long time since my teen years, when I was totally obsessed with UFOlogy and alien abduction tales. In the last decade or so, I even abandoned the interest enough to let mold infiltrate my autographed copy of Whitley Strieber's The Secret School. But I still have a passing enthusiasm for the subject, and so I'm very excited to see an adaptation of Strieber's The Grays moving into production. This time, though, the self-proclaimed abductee and horror author (The Hunger) isn't getting the barely-on-the-radar treatment that Communion received. Instead, according to Strieber's own site, Unknown Country, The Grays will be directed by blockbuster filmmaker Wolfgang Petersen (Poseidon) and produced by Sony. The movie doesn't have an exact start date, but the site says it should begin filming in the next few months for either a summer 2008 or summer 2009 release -- the latter stated as more likely.

The Grays is a more fact-based fiction of aliens than Communion, which featured Christopher Walken as Strieber. The book focuses on some aliens (aka Grays), called The Three Thieves, who are performing genetic experiments on humans, and a woman who may be able to save mankind through her ability to communicate with the Grays. Since Walken will be in anything, I'd like him to pay a nod to the earlier film by being cast in The Grays. He could certainly play the part of a military leader who tries to keep the aliens secret. Or maybe he would be better off playing some kind of Strieber substitute. I never read this particular book, so I'm unfamiliar with its characters. Strieber is on a hot streak these days; he recently sold the rights to his new book, 2012: The War for Souls, which Michael Bay is producing (and possibly directing).

[via AICN]