Francis Lawrence to Direct The World Without Us
From the last man on Earth to… no men on Earth? Fox has acquired the rights to Alan Weisman’s non-fiction book The World Without Us with the intention of turning it into a big budget blockbuster from the writer and director of I Am Legend. Mark Protosevich, who also wrote the script for the upcoming Thor movie, was supposed to be working on Will Smith’s Oldboy remake next, but now will turn his attention to this project first.
Weisman’s book uses real-world science to predict exactly what would happen to the planet if humans were to suddenly disappear entirely. I’ve seen a documentary based on the book, and while it is a fascinating concept, I’m still wondering how it can possibly be turned into an exciting fictional film. The Hollywood Reporter says that they would expand the concept and likely “show an event that would lead to man’s disappearance”. End of the world scenarios are always fun and I liked I Am Legend more than most, so I’m definitely intrigued to see what director Francis Lawrence can do with the material. He is currently in pre-production on a movie called Eddie Dickens and the Awful End.
Comments (6)
I would imagine large areas of the earth would be fucked since nuclear reactors would be unmanned and would melt down leaving huge areas radioactive.
Posted by swarez on April 2nd, 2009I’ve heard him speak of this (the author) on some science radio and podcast programs. The Earth would, of course, do quite well without us. But, would the movie have a narrator, like the old Disney nature films? Would it be silent, letting the imagery do the talking? I wonder how they’re going to pull it off in such a way as to get people into seats.
Posted by Deven Science on April 2nd, 2009Will Smith please leave the thought of remaking Oldboy and move on to other projects.
Posted by msilver on April 2nd, 2009Wow, very cool concept for a book. I think I’ll have to pick up a copy. What is the doc called Sean? I tried searching for it briefly, but it appears that there is a totally unrelated doc called The World Without US – centered on militarism in the States – which is getting in the way.
Posted by Neil M on April 2nd, 2009The documentary was intersting but this is not a Blockbuster type movie so I’d imagine whatever they’ll do with it will be lame. Lawerence did the pilot for that NBC piecer Kings so maybe the king will end the civilization? I think the definitive last humans on the world story (mainly because it has no freakin zombies and deals with real concerns) is The Earth Abides but an adapatation of that book would require thoughtful work.
Posted by Ian on April 3rd, 2009The documentary I saw was called Aftermath: The World After Humans, but I think there’s another one called Life After People.
Posted by Sean on April 3rd, 2009Leave a Reply