Plundering the mines of fictional heroes has paid handsomely for Hollywood in the past, and Dreamwork’s latest project takes a shot at updating the figure of heroic Victorian adventurer Allen Quartermain with a sci-fi setting.
The reason why this project is in the news today is that the project, which has writer Mark Verheiden taking a crack at the script, has found its star in the form of man of the moment Sam Worthington.
At the forefront of some of the biggest and most lucrative films of the past few years, Worthington’s career trajectory is following that of an action star, at home in the ancient past of Clash of the Titans as in the future world of Avatar. Despite the lack of critical tremor for his work on the screen Worthington will be taking a prominent role in the development of this film as a Producer.
Here’s what HeatVision had to say,
DreamWorks’ version is set in a time in which humans have left Earth and sees Quatermain return to the planet from a sojourn in space, embarking on another “King Solomon’s Mines”-style adventure but on a planetwide scale.
The character of Allen Quartermain has been thrown up on the big screen many times before, here’s hoping this will be more successful that the Sean Connery version in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and that of the recent mockbuster Allen Quartermain and the Temple of Skulls.
The sci-fi setting is an interesting twist, though I can’t imagine Spielberg looking to throw Indiana Jones into the 24th Century any time soon.
