Isaac Asimov has suddenly become popular with movie makers. Until now, the only big screen endeavor based on his work was The Fantastic Voyage, but now no less than two Asimov works are being converted to film.
Chris Columbus and Robin Williams, the men who brought you Mrs. Doubtfire, are working on an adaptation of an Asimov novella, Bicentennial Man, for Disney. Williams will play an android named Andrew Martin who becomes increasingly more human than robotic as he serves several generations of a family. The film, which is scheduled for a December ( read "Christmas") release, is scripted by Nicholas Kazan and includes Embeth Davidtz and Sam Neill in the cast. Given the Columbus/Williams record as a couple, this could be at the very least a fun family flick.
Paramount, in the meantime, has acquired Dr. A's novel The End of Eternity as a project for Ridley Scott, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Gary Goldman of Total Recall fame is alleged to be handling the script, with Scott Free Films and Wind Dancer Productions listed as co-producers. This story is also about an Andrew - an "Eternal" named Andrew Harlan who breaks his races rules by falling in love with a non-Eternal. No date yet for when we can expect this one.
New Line Offers $1.5 Million for New Book
Variety announced that New Line picked up the film rights to best-selling sf writer Tess Gerritsen's yet-to-be published novel Gravity for a cool million up front and an additional $500K if the film actually makes it to the can. Tentative plans are to release the movie in the summer of either 2000 or 2001.
The novel, which centers around an ER doc with a yen to be an astronaut and his ex, who experiments with nasty bugs in space, will be published in September by Pocket Books. When one of her experiments goes bad, the two have to work together to save the world. Didn't Cameron already do this story underwater?
Harvey Remake Planned
Pardon me while I cringe.
Miramax has grabbed the screen rights to a remake of Harvey, and I'm already having panic attacks. This is one of my favorite movies, bar none, and the dismal record of other remakes does not lead me to anticipation.
For the unenlightened, Harvey is the story of a forty-something fellow named Elwood P. Dowd, whose best friend is an invisible white rabbit named "Harvey." In the 1950 adaptation of Mary Chase's play, Dowd was played by the incomparable James Stewart, supported by a cast of some of the greatest character actors in history.
