Is Brad Bird following up Mission Impossible 4 with Here There Be Monsters?

Last Updated on July 23, 2021

I’m usually against news items that hinge on what “might” happen. So and so might be interested in directing, this guy might read the script, etc. It’s basically making news out of non-news… That said, the potential of awesomeness in this story is too good to pass up, so I’ll run with it.

The story in question deals with Legendary Pictures’ sea monster project HERE THERE BE MONSTERS, which sounds just great. It comes from the ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER school of revisionism, focusing on American Revolutionary War hero John Paul Jones and pitting him against horrific underwater creatures. Robert Zemeckis was initially attached ot direct the film, but in November we learned he had departed the ambitious project.

According to New York Magazine’s Vulture blog, Brad Bird might pick up where Zemeckis left off. As they have it, Bird is meeting with Legendary Pictures brass about the project, which originated as an idea by company chairman Thomas Tull. In it, John Paul Jones is wrongly stripped of his British naval commission and hired by a shipping magnate to investigate the disappearance of his merchant ships in the North Atlantic. Soon enough, Jones and his crew suspect that it’s the handiwork of a sea monster and have to fight to survive it.

Bird is coming off the highly-successful MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL, and of course before that he directed the Pixar flicks THE INCREDIBLES and RATATOUILLE, both of which garnered him Academy Awards. Now that he seems firmly committed to live-action movies, this wild adventure-fantasy-horror-period piece seems like an excellent next step… But maybe that’s just because I’m anxious to see a truly epic sea monster flick.