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Alex Proyas Hired to Direct Legendary's 'Paradise Lost' Movie

by Alex Billington
September 16, 2010

Take that Universal! It looks like director Alex Proyas (The Crow, Dark City, I Robot, Knowing) might not be shooting Dracula Year Zero with Sam Worthington next year after all. Legendary Pictures has a movie that they were developing with Day the Earth Stood Still's director Scott Derrickson called Paradise Lost, based on the epic 17th-century English poem by John Milton, but Variety reports that Legendary has hired Alex Proyas to direct in place of Derrickson and reveals some exciting details about how epic and huge this project will be. I know this is a high profile project for Legendary, so we might see it sooner than you think.

Paradise Lost, originally published in 1667 in ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse, tells the story of the epic war in heaven between archangels Michael and Lucifer (basically the devil - the bad guy), and will be crafted as an action vehicle that will include aerial warfare, possibly shot in 3D. Knowing that the guy behind The Crow and Dark City will be doing this is awesome. I've seen a glimpse of some concept art and this movie will be epic and incredibly stylized in a way you've never seen. Stuart Hazeldine (Exam) developed the primary draft of the screenplay that was originally written by Byron Willinger and Philip de Blasi. Lawrence Kasdan (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Dreamcatcher) provided a polish as well as Ryan Condal, of the most recent draft. Legendary's Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni will produce along with Vincent Newman.

Variety doesn't say anything about how soon they're hoping to move into production, but I have a feeling it's Proyas' priority and something he's really pushing to start sometime in 2011. At least that's what I've heard Legendary wants, since it was already in development for a while with Derrickson. The project is only in the early pre-production stages and we don't know too much about it, but I've got a feeling this could be pretty awesome in the end. I'm also just happy to see Proyas getting back to something that he can put his unique stylistic touch on, as I love his more stylistic genre stuff more than his contemporary Knowing kind of work.

Paradise Lost

Filed under Movie News, Opinions

From around the web:

beavis

the concept is cool - i just hope the movie ends up being just as good
8=D

sweeeeeeeett make it good though i dont want it to look like passion or legion
az

paradise lost is amazing so if done right could make for an epic film. when reading it i remember thinking it would make an incredible film. basically lotr but replace orcs and men with angels and devils .
Neo_3

How do you know this is before Year Zero. Year Zero is supposed to get a Summer 2011 start. I don't think Proyas can start Paradise Lost by the end of 2011 and still manage a 2012 release. The only way is if Dracula is put on hold for Paradise Lost. WB to many films for 2012 and Worthington schedule's are 2 problems. WB has CotT, TDK2, MoS, All You Need is Kill, Godzilla, Xerxes, Jack the Giant Killer. All their big months are taken, but November is still open. What about Hyperion and Seventh Son. Hyperion is Derrickson's film instead of Paradise Lost. Worthington is supposed to star in Yea Zero, if he is still doing it the only time he has is that Summer 2011 date til after Avatar 2.
Brian

Im a huge paradise lost fan and am taking a class now for school entirely focused on this epic poem. When i first heard about this movie I was so excited but now I feel like no matter how good it may be, it will be a disappointment. In the first 4 books (a third of the poem) there is no action what so ever. This movie should be NOTHING like LOTR!!!
Richrd

I was taking a Trialpay survey on movies and got to see the "Paradise Lost" 2012 trailer. It was completely off the hook. Like the other posters mentioned, it can easily be a huge epic movie like the first Ten Commandments by Cecil B. De mill. The language was that right out of the Bible, and really showed a true depiction of Biblical events. The action, and dialogue was phenomenal as well. A lot of aerial fighting with massive depth. This movie will most likely be filmed in 3D as well. I simply can't wait for this movie to come out to theaters in 2012. That's if the Mayan calender isn't correct. lol!