Since the Transformers sequel is currently in limbo due to an impending Hollywood strike, it seems director Michael Bay is searching for a film to jump on soon-ish, this way the big-budgeted machine can have another giant flick in theaters for the summer of 2008. And according to Sci-Fi Wire, that film could be 2012: The War for the Souls, based on the book by Whitley Strieber. When Strieber was asked recently if Bay (who's already producing the film) was interested in directing 2012, he said: "I don't know if he will direct it for sure, but I know he is interested in directing it. Michael Bay's company did buy the rights to 2012, though, and he will at least produce it."

It would seem fitting for Bay to direct since apparently Transformers screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci have hopped onboard to produce and adapt the script. They could promote it as: "From the guys who brought you Transformers ....", simply open the doors and watch the masses pile in. Strieber, who also co-wrote the book that later became the film version of The Day After Tomorrow, talks about the so-called doomsday prophecy in this new book; how Nostradamus and the Mayan calendar predicted 2012 as the beginning of the End of Days. The book centers on a door to a parallel Earth that opens on December 21, 2012. Warner Bros. is scheduled to release the film at some point during the summer of 2008, and, if you ask me, I have a feeling Michael Bay will jump all over the thing. As always, we'll keep you updated ...

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]

I hate thinking about the apocalypse. I used to have recurring nightmares about the end of the world, and despite world events seeming hopeless these days I'd like to think the end is not actually nigh. Other people, however, are happy to discuss the apparently inevitable apocalypse, as well as how it will happen and when. According to Whitley Strieber, author and alien abductee, the end of the world will come in 2012, and he has a book about it coming out in September. TMZ has the scoop that Warner Bros. already has plans to turn the book into a movie and Michael Bay has been set up to produce.

It isn't definite if Bay will also direct, but Transformers screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci have apparently been hired to adapt it for the screen. I'll admit that I was once a big UFO buff and I even went to a Strieber book signing, but after awhile my fascination died, partially because everything was getting so depressing. Strieber, for instance, is not just now becoming apocalyptic; he was a co-author of the book that The Day After Tomorrow was based on (he also wrote the film's novelization). I know that one had nothing to do with aliens, but Strieber isn't solely known for his abduction books. He also wrote the horror novels that became Wolfen and The Hunger. There is no synopsis given for his new book, which is called 2012: The War for Souls, but supposedly some UFO theorists believe aliens will invade Earth in 2012.

However, Strieber has previously written an article about the year and our fate in it that has nothing to do with aliens. Instead it references a famous Mayan prophecy and discusses more environmental catastrophes a la The Day After Tomorrow. Whatever the plot of the book and movie, though, it is sure to make me nervous, especially if I think too much about it.

[via Hollywood Wiretap]