Warner Bros. And Bayona Going Sci-fi Together

By Nick Venable | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

This is one of those announcements that’s almost like hearing about a treasure that was found, but you’re only told where the treasure was found and the names of the pirates involved with its recovery. You just have to wait to see what the treasure is.

Warner Bros. has an untitled sci-fi project in the works, and has some big names on board to make up for the complete lack of details.

Bayona

Juan Antonio Bayona has been named director of the “project which is sci-fi and is also untitled.” His most recent success was The Impossible, with Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts, who earned an Best Actress Oscar nomination for her work in the disaster survival drama. Before that, his major debut was in the Guillermo del Toro-produced The Orphanage, which mixed a haunting, if simplistic, story with dark and inventive visuals. Seeing Bayona on a sci-fi project is definitely promising, and it’s always a good thing when non-hack directors go for genre flicks, as their vision is usually more personal rather than guided by greenbacks. But it is Warner Bros., so…

Perhaps more surprising, and equally exciting, is that script duties are going to Eric Roth, who was responsible most recently for the heavy-handed Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, but also gave us Forrest Gump, Munich, The Insider, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. So the guy is no stranger to critically acclaimed award winners, nor does he seem to be a proponent of empty dramas. So there’s no doubt that whatever angle he takes will undoubtedly be somewhat political and far-reaching.

The film will be produced by Kevin McCormick, whom Warner Bros. uses occasionally to pump out its marginally liked movies, like Gangster Squad and The Lucky One. In any case, all news is good news when there’s high talent like this behind the camera and script.