At the very beginning of the month, we reported on a “short list” of directors being considered to direct a new Twilight Zone movie for Warner Bros. One of those directors was Christopher Nolan (!!!), another was Michael Bay (???), and a dark horse candidate was Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes). And none of the directors mentioned were Matt Reeves, director of Cloverfield and Let Me In. But Reeves is now the man with the job, beating out a group of strong contenders, now taking his spot to direct … The Twilight Zone.
Well, this is actually an awesome choice. True, Nolan was the obvious frontrunner for this job, considering his past work is so reminiscent of Twilight Zone stories. But, if we turn on our Speculatron 3000, that may have been exactly why Nolan wasn’t interested in this project. As for the other contenders, Bay was probably never a serious option (despite Bay’s penchant for robots, and despite robot movie Real Steel being based on an episode of The Twilight Zone), and in the end, Reeves was probably a less expensive candidate. But the most well-known examples of his work — Cloverfield and Let Me In — are great displays of direction that is creepy and unsettling in a subtle way, which is perfect for The Twilight Zone. His other upcoming projects, The Dark Endeavour (based on a novel about a young Victor Frankenstein), The Passage (based on a zombie apocalypse novel), and 8 O’Clock in the Morning (based on a short story that also inspired the John Carpenter movie They Live), are also establishing Reeves as an emerging force in the horror-suspense genre.
It’s also noteworthy that Reeves is a frequent collaborator of childhood friend J.J. Abrams, with whom he created Felicity and who was the producer of Cloverfield. Abrams is not connected to this project … that we know of …
Reeves will direct a script being written by Jason Rothenberg, who is taking the place of Rand Ravich. His script is said to be a “page one rewrite,” which is insider-talk for “pretty much doing it all over again.” But a vague summary of the script is being described as “a big science fiction action movie with a single freestanding story that is linked to the original series mainly in that it shares that familiarly eerie feel.” No word yet on which episode this script is “linked to,” but, personally, when I think of The Twilight Zone, one of the last things I think about is “big science fiction action.” In fact, that reminds me of Michael Bay … But I’ll allow it.
(via /Film)
