Two guys who recently had big high profile projects fall apart at Warner Bros. may be teaming for another big blockbuster the studio is brewing.
Vulture reports that Jaume Collet-Serra (who saw "Akira" get shelved) and Bradley Cooper (who had "Paradise Lost" canned, while "The Crow" flew away at Relativity) are being eyed for "Here There Be Monsters." The director is negotiating while an offer is out to Cooper, but this project, penned by Brian Helgeland, has already seen some big names take a look. Robert Zemeckis was one of the first linked last summer, while Brad Bird was toying with the gig only a couple of months ago. What makes it such a tantalizing project?
The film tells the story of a disgraced British Naval officer who is hired by a rich shipping magnate to investigate the disappearance of his merchant ships in the North Atlantic, only to discover a giant sea serpent is the culprit. So yeah, an epic sea adventure without the words "battle" or "ship" (but that title is still fucking awful). If everything works out, the plan would be to shoot this in early 2013, which would give Cooper time to make WB's bread and butter sequel, "The Hangover Part III."
But what about "Harker," the vampire project Collet-Serra has been working on? According to Vulture, that one won't roll until 2014, but Russell Crowe — rumored for a lead role recently — is attached to star in the revisionist tale of a Scotland Yard detective investigating a string of gruesome murders committed by a guy from Transylvania.
Certainly, Collet-Serra has the chops and is likely much cheaper than either Zemeckis or Bird. And as for Cooper, lord knows he'd love to finally do a big summer tentpole that doesn't require him hanging around three wasted dudes for 24 hours. So we'll see if this all eventually coalesces.