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It's been nearly six months since the live-action Stretch Armstrong jumped ship from Universal to Relativity Media — losing Academy Award–winner Brian Grazer (A Beautiful Mind) and Imagine Entertainment as producers, Rob Letterman as a director, Nick Stoller as the screenwriter and Twilight star Taylor Lautner as the title character, in the process — but it appears that there's finally going to be some progress on the Hasbro toy adaptation. Relativity Media sent out a press release declaring that a deal has been struck with Breck Eisner (The Crazies) to direct the big screen exploits of the stretchy superhero in what is being described as a "gritty actioner."
more about Stretch Armstrong >> Posted 07.21.12 by BrentJS -
Progress on the Escape From New York seemed to moving forward last summer, with director Breck Eisner (The Crazies) being brought on board after screenwriter Allan Loeb's rewrite of the script had renvigorated the interest of New Line Pictures. Eisner admitted that he still wanted to do a "significant pass" on Loeb's script before moving forward, but apparently that pass didn't keep the momentum going because, a year later, the project is without a studio.
what happened? >> Posted 07.23.11 by Ryan -
Universal has had directors lined up to take the helm of the adaptation Ouija, based on Hasbro's board game that supposedly allows players to talk to ghosts and spirits. According to THR, directors Pierre Morel (Taken), Sylvain White (The Losers), Scott Stewart (Legion), and John Moore (Max Payne) have all failed to land the gig, which leaves Universal to decide between two other directors who are vying for the job — McG and Breck Eisner (The Crazies). Eisner reportedly pitched his take to the studio last week before McG's Friday presentation and Universal is taking the holidays to think through their decision.
Will Ouija be scary? >> Posted 12.20.10 by Ryan -
Director Breck Eisner has been lining up projects after his remake of The Crazies gained over $50 million in worldwide box office (on a $20 million budget). Eisner has mentioned that his next project will be another remake, this time Escape from New York, based on John Carpenter's 1981 classic. The movie has been in development for years, stagnating until screenwriter Allan Loeb delivered a rewrite in February that renewed studio interest. Eisner was brought on board, but he recently told Comingsoon that production won't begin on Escape until more work is done.
Director Eisner takes a stab at current script >> Posted 06.29.10 by Ryan -
After finding success with the remake of The Crazies earlier this year, Breck Eisner is busy filling his schedule with several different projects, including a recently announced comic book adaptation of Blood of the Innocent, which pits infamous murderer Jack the Ripper against Dracula. Eisner spoke to FEARnet, explaining his interest in making the movie.
Read what Eisner said about all three movies >> Posted 06.26.10 by Ryan -
Since Breck Eisner's The Crazies remake entered theaters, Eisner — whose previous work included the 2005 dud Sahara — has become the go-to genre director, lining up an Escape From New York remake as well as a remake of 1980's Flash Gordon. Eisner isn't done, either.
The busy director is looking to add yet another genre project to his schedule, and this one isn't a remake. Eisner has his eyes on Mark Wheatley's Insight Studios comic book Blood of the Innocent.
more on this Dracula vs. Jack the Ripper tale >> Posted 06.16.10 by Ryan -
The remake of John Carpenter's 1981 classic Escape from New York got back on track in February when reports that screenwriter Allan Loeb had created a rewrite that sparked renewed interest from New Line Pictures.
While there's still no actor hired to replace Kurt Russell as the eyepatch-wearing Snake Plissken — Gerard Butler was attached but left over creative differences — but they do have a director. THR reports that Breck Eisner, who directed the remake of The Crazies, is in negotiations to direct the movie.
more on the Escape From New York remake Posted 04.25.10 by Ryan -
Director Breck Eisner (yes, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner's son) directed a stinker 5 years ago (Sahara). Is the zombie/post-apocalypse genre more up his alley?
"...has the makings of a certified hit."
— Michael Rechtshaffen, Hollywood Reporter
"...easily the most accomplished bit of contextless, big-budget pre-apocalyptic doomsaying since Zack Snyder's 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead."
— Simon Abrams, Slant Magazine
"...Eisner stages a series of nifty action sequences, nearly all of which feature a moment of surprise, as well as gruesome wit..."
— Chuck Wilson, Village Voice
"...emerges an above-average genre piece that's equal parts horror-meller and doomsday action thriller."
— Dennis Harvey, Variety
"...a perfectly competent genre film in a genre that has exhausted its interest for me, the Zombie Film."
— Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Posted 02.26.10 by reelz -
With The Crazies debut just a few days away, director Breck Eisner is spreading the word about his remake of George Romero's 1973 original. Eisner told Collider that he would describe his Crazies as "horror-thriller," and, much like Romero has done in countless horror movies, tried to mix social relevance in with the scares.
[F]or me, if you're going to remake a movie, it's got to have relevance today, as it did when it was originally made. Romero's Crazies was made in '73 under the shadow of the ending of the Vietnam War and when we started developing our Crazies, it was after 9/11, under the shadow of the George Bush presidency and the invasion of Iraq, and it seemed like a very similar time in the country and a time that was right for having this movie, which is a terror-horror ride, but one that has some commentary on the use of the military and the use of biological weaponry. So, that social message within the fabric of a genre, exciting movie is something that I think is intrinsic to Romero's early work and one which I wanted to retain in doing this version.
One way that Eisner deliberately decided not to update Romero's original was to shoot the movie in 3-D.
Obviously, I loved Avatar and I've always been a fan of CG and cutting-edge technology. In '95, I did my thesis film at USC; it was a CG-live-action combined film, very early in those days.
But I think those tools should be used on a per-film basis. So a movie like Avatar obviously is right for three dimensions, for heavy CG and digital shooting. But for the film The Crazies, I wanted to have a more traditional filmic quality, the nice tight grain of a Kodak film and the saturation of the colors and the 2-dimensional filmic world.
Despite a limited resume that boasts the poorly received action-comedy Sahara as its only existing feature, Eisner claims he is "drawn to horror."
Pure genre movies are the ones that I am most drawn to and have always been drawn to. And I'm drawn to horror movies that have good story, good character and good character journeys and concepts; I'm not necessarily a fan of movies like Friday the 13th or the reboot of Halloween,although I appreciate the sort of quality that goes into them. The kind of movies that I draw inspiration from, that I most connect to, are those ones I was talking about earlier, ones that set up a world that establish the characters, establish the environment that they live in, establish the relationships first, and then you get to watch this descent into madness as their world collapses around the characters. It feels to me like in order to keep horror fresh and to keep the audience vested in the movie, you have to get invested in the characters, invested in the world that you're creating. You can't just try and comeup with bigger and better and more graphic kills. There are people out there who can do that better than I can. I play to what I feel my strengths are and what my loves are in film and that's character journey and concept and story.
Posted 02.25.10 by Ryan -
Breck Eisner's remake of the The Crazies opens later this week, but the director told FEARnet that he already has two more remakes in the works. The first is a reworking of the comic strip "sci-fi hero turned 1980 classic" Flash Gordon, and the second is a remake of David Cronenberg's The Brood. Esiner admitted that Flash Gordon is something he has been working on for "years."
It had been optioned multiple times, it had started and stopped. It's a very difficult project [to film], but I have been keeping my eye on it. Once the rights reverted back to the original owners, Hearst, I met with them and persuaded the guys to let me take the property out and pitch it.
In terms of working on it, I interviewed a lot of writers and found two writers I really liked [Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless (the upcoming Dracula: Year Zero)]. They've been on for almost a year. We've done one draft and are on the second draft now. I was taken away from the development of Flash Gordon to focus on The Crazies. After post on The Crazies, I was able to spend two solid months with the guys, breaking story.
Eisner says that his Flash Gordon will have "nothing to do with the camp of the 1980s [film] or the serials."
We looked back to the Alex Raymond comic strips from the 1930s and imagined the film as if Raymond were still alive today, drawing those comics. The movie is intense, there is action and adventure, it is dynamic and it is off-world. It will definitely focus on the lead character, Flash Gordon. It's more of an origin story for Flash Gordon.
We intend to shoot it in 3-D if we get to that point. Making these movies are difficult, and getting them green-lit is difficult. We have a schedule going [to the studio] in a couple of months, and hopefully the studio will like the script and want to spend the giant bucks that this movie would need. It's a project I have been passionate about for years. I have been pursuing it for years. I'm hopeful I will get to make it one day.
Should Flash Gordon fall through, Eisner has been picked to direct The Brood, though he admits he's not sure the movie should be remade.
That's very, very early in the process. I was approached about it, and I really like Cory Goodman, the writer. I like the script, and I like the guys at Spyglass Entertainment who are doing the film. I am a big fan of the original, and that is one of the issues for me. I have to really think about it and do a gut-check and see if I feel that this is one that really should be remade. That's something I am trying to decide these days.
Posted 02.22.10 by Ryan