McG To Get Medieval On Your Bottom
The ever-wonderfulProduction Weeklyhave Tweeted up their latest uncovering. It’s short enough to quote in its entirety, so here goes:
McGis attached to directMedieval, a spec script by Mike Finch & Alex Litvak, described asThe Dirty Dozenset in medieval times.
As far as I know, Finch and Litvak previously worked together when Litvak was a producer moving Finch’sAdrenalinethrough development. I guess co-writing is a new thing for them because I can’t find any reports or trace of other scripts they’ve tapped out in partnership.I’m probably the sole proudly pronounced McG fan on the /Film team. I’m happy to see him lining up more work. Perhaps I’m a little disappointed that he’s back to playing around in the big budget, action adventure end of the pool again, not the saltier, less chlorinated waters where he spawnedWe Are Marshall… but then again, he’s so very, very good at the blowing up and crash-smash bingo bango that I’m also happy he’s rescued another such spectacle from the bungling mitts of, say, Ratner, Mostow, Sommers or Bay.The no. 1 rival project toMedievalwould be Brian K. Vaughan’sRoundtable. Dreamworkssnapped that one uplast summer though I don’t think much progress has been made, or at least been made public. WhereasRoundtableis set in the present day and features contemporary analogs to Arthur’s crew teaming up with Merlin to slap back some ancient evil,Medievaljust looks to be taking a modern day approach to action and dropping it into a (possibly horrendously inaccurate) historical setting. All the same – Big Knight Action. It’s in.I think theDirty Dozenstyled subgenre of “men on a mission” flicks has been given new lease by the excitement surroundingInglourious Basterds. The typical expectation there is that Tarantino will be bringing us something of a straight-up,Dozen-styled, behind-enemy-lines boy’s own adventure, and not the enquiry into the power and potency of propaganda, love letter to the emotional power of the close up, and strange romance that he will really be bringing us in half of the film’s scenes.
