After years of inactivity – his last film was 2004’s I, Robot – Alex Proyas is getting pretty darn busy.
The Australian helmer is currently hard at work Down Under putting the finishing touches on his dark sci-fi thriller, Knowing, which stars Nic Cage as a man who uncovers a code that predicts major disasters.
Then, once he’s done that, he should go on to direct the big-budget horror movie, Dracula: Year Zero (click here to see what he had to tell us about that at this year’s Comic-Con).
But he might choose to put that on hold and press ahead with the latest project to catch his eye: an adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein’s sci-fi novella, The Unpleasant Profession Of Jonathan Hoag.
The $40-50 million budgeted movie will be produced by Mike Medavoy, Arnie Messer and Brad Fischer through their company, Phoenix Pictures, with Proyas himself adapting the script from a work close to his heart.
"I read this story as a kid, and it really stayed with me," he says. "It's part of my creative DNA."
The 1942 story, which Proyas and his partners describe as an action-packed psychological thriller, complete with a love story, has a doozy of a hook: a man who can’t account for his actions during the day employs a husband-and-wife detective team to find out what he gets up to. Needless to say, the truth is pretty much out there – very out there. If you thought Proyas’ Dark City was bleedin’ mental, you ain’t seen nothing yet, but that’s all we’re going to say.
The title, by the way, is likely to change. Shooting should start in 2010 or 2011, depending on where Proyas places this on his to-do list.