No.. I’m not talking about that bald techno dude… I’m talking about the whale. Well this news broke the other day and being it’s a slow Friday night/Saturday morning, I figured I’d bring it to your attention. It seems Universal Pictures are gearing up to retool MOBY DICK.
Now don’t scoff just yet… this isn’t the age old tale we’re all used to. It seems Universal are gearing for a more violent, action packed telling of the story. How so? Well they’ve got Timur Bekmambetov directing. We all know Bekmambetov as the guy who brought us WANTED, which seems to be one of the surprises of the summer. Not sold yet? Well they’ve got the duo of Adam Cooper and Bill Collage penning the script, hiring the writers because of their ‘graphic novel-style.’
That sounds pretty intriguing to me! Now here’s the deal on what we can expect. The whole first-person narration thing MOBY DICK has is gone. Out the window. Instead the writers plan on concentrating more on the whale, showing how he’s this force that just destroys ships in his path. Also, instead of delving into Ahab’s downward spiral into insanity, the Captain will come off more as a charismatic leader. Here’s what Cooper had to say:
“Our vision isn’t your grandfather’s ‘Moby Dick.’ This is an opportunity to take a timeless classic and capitalize on the advances in visual effects to tell what at its core is an action-adventure revenge story.” Collage added: “We wanted to take a graphic novel sensibility to a classic narrative.”
Now I know the general audience is usually against remaking classics.. but I’m all for this! I guess most kids have to read MOBY DICK at some point for school… I didn’t, so I’m actually not entirely familiar with the tale, so maybe that’s why I’m stoked for this.
MOBY DICK will obviously be based off the novel by Herman Melville. In case you don’t know… it’s about the adventures of the wandering sailor Ishmael and his voyage on the whaling ship Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab. Ishmael soon learns that Ahab seeks one specific whale, Moby-Dick, a white whale of tremendous size and ferocity. Comparatively few whaling ships know of Moby-Dick, and fewer yet have encountered him. In a previous encounter, the whale destroyed Ahab’s boat and bit off his leg. Ahab intends to exact revenge.
We’ll be keeping an eye on this one, and if it turns out to be as violent and vicious as it’s sounding… we’ll keep you updated.