Deadline reports that busy production company FilmNation Entertainment has acquired former Variety reporter-turned-screenwriter Mike Jones‘s spec script In The Event Of A Moon Disaster.
Moon Disaster is a revisionist-history take on the first moon mission (Apollo 11 was the first successful moon landing), in which “disaster strikes and the astronauts find themselves up against insurmountable odds.” I thought Apollo 13 already covered this territory, but with the gargantuan success of Transformers: Dark of the Moon (and the upcoming Apollo 18), revision-moon-landing features seem to be developing into their own sub-genre.
Beyond this project, Jones is set to collaborate with A Nightmare Before Christmas
director Henry Selick on an as-yet-untitled Pixar project, and has turned in a Popeye revamp for Sony. Either of these projects are at least as promising as this Moon Disaster project, so expect some interesting things from Mike Jones.
FilmNation is also courting Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon for the leads in Take Shelter helmer Jeff Nichols‘s next feature, Mud and has committed to fully back the budget of Paranormal Activity director Oren Peli‘s untitled next project.
Do any of these upcoming projects sounds promising to you?