Who in their right mind hasn’t heard of THE TWILIGHT ZONE? The eerie theme song, the twisted stories, the updated version with the genius voice of Forest Whitaker behind it. What’s not to love?
Well Summit apparently feels the same way, as they’ve decided to make a film based on a classic TWILIGHT ZONE episode. Said episode is titled ‘Death Ship.’
The movie is called COUNTDOWN and revolves around a group of astronauts who land on a planet only to find a crashed spaceship and corpses that eerily resemble their own. They then must piece together where they are and whether they might in fact already be dead.
Nice! That sounds like loads of fun, especially with the right cast. Screenwriter Michael Brandt has already been pegged to direct the film. Brandt and Derek Haas are rewriting a script by Stephen Gregg and Scott Burn. Richard Matheson penned the original episode. You might recognize the writing duo of Brandt and Haas as the guys behind the script for the upcoming WANTED… or you might not but now you do.
COUNTDOWN is looking at a $30 million dollar range with a late summer production start date. Brandt had the following to say regarding the movie:
“‘Countdown’ is fantastic because it wraps the themes of fate and predestination in a movie that is really a giant puzzle (that will also) be fun for the audience to piece together. The updates that are successful — not just of this but of any of the great 1950s sci-fi concepts — are those that take the idea and bring a modern sensibility to it. When it misses sometimes, it’s because people get caught up in the story from start to finish.”
This sounds like one to keep an eye on. We’ll keep you updated.