A lot of people got excited when it was indicated back in April that Robert Zemeckis would finally go back to live-action filmmaking with Flight, and it’s understandable why. After all, his last three films – The Polar Express, Beowulf and A Christmas Carol - were all widely considered to be only mildly impressive on a technical level and very underwhelming on a storytelling one. And when Disney cancels your remake of Yellow Submarine… well, the message is definitely sent.

24Frames is the bearer of good news today, with their report that he’s signed on with Paramount to direct the movie. Their sources have indicated that he’s signed on, with shooting set to begin in the fall. It tells the story of a pilot named Whip Whitaker, who saves his plane that’s about to crash. However, his heroism is called into question when an investigation reveals that he was under the influence of drugs and alcohol – this obviously means that the issues were partly his fault. This is kept secret by certain authorities, because there are “high stakes involved.”

As was also previously rumored, Denzel Washington is apparently attached to play the lead, but things such as a deal and scheduling conflicts need to be worked out with Paramount. I’d love to see the two of them work together, and he won’t even have dead eyes and an emotionless face!

There were, of course, a few other projects that Zemeckis was considering before this fell into his lap. Some of those include the live-action time travel film Replay, as well as How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack, which would be a mix of live-action and CGI. It’s no coincidence that he wants to get back into that format, either. He seems to have heard much of the backlash against his recent projects — as a result, he’s beginning to understand that people don’t want things in that vein. I’m happy to see him finally return to the type of filmmaking that he hasn’t done since 2000′s Cast Away, and one can only hope that directing this will put him back on the right track.

Are you happy to see Zemeckis return to live-action? Does this project sound interesting to you, and would you want Denzel Washington in the lead?