Romancing the Stone Remake Still Alive
Posted 08.27.11 by BrentJS
Despite appearances to the contrary, 20th Century Fox's planned remake of Robert Zemeckis's 1984 action-adventure romatic comedy, Romancing the Stone, is apparently not dead, even though there has been little to no progress made on it since it was first announced back in December 2008. According to MovieHole, a "trusted source" has revealed that the remake is still in active development at Fox and that producer Emma Watts is looking to choose "someone newish to the moviemaking scene" to helm the movie. It was not revealed whether screenwriter Daniel McDermott (Eagle Eye) is still involved, but apparently Watts is looking at Taylor Kitsch and Gerard Butler to play Michael Douglas's character, Jack T. Colton, and Katherine Heigl for the role of Joan Wilder, played by Kathleen Turner in the original.
Romancing the Stone was the only produced screenplay written by waitress-turned-screenwriter Diane Thomas, who tragically died in an auto accident the year after the movie's release. The story revolves around Joan Wilder (Turner), a lonely romance novelist who is forced into an adventure like something out of one of her own novels after being sent a treasure map by her recently-murdered brother-in-law. The map points the way to a huge emerald called El Corazon ("The Heart") and Wilder is forced to take it to Cartagena, Colombia, as ransom for her sister, Elaine (Mary Ellen Trainor), who has been kidnapped. Along the way, Wilder is saved by roguish exotic bird exporter Jack T. Colton (Douglas), who initially tries to "romance" the map away from Joan for his own selfish reasons, but ends up falling in love with her.
For a real blast from the past, check out the original trailer for the 1984 movie!