Dear Channing Tatum: we know Dear John did really well at the box office, but not every film you get attached to has to have a heavy romantic element to it. Channing obviously disagrees, because hot on the heels of him signing onto romantic drama The Vow with Rachel McAdams comes word that he’s involved in Ion, a sci-fi pic that, yup, features a decent chunk of the old lurve.
Clearly still rejoicing over the avalanche of money that Avatar brought in, Fox is now developing the film via Fox 2000. Ion follows a man (Tatum), who crosses dimensions and scours alternate Earths to find his reincarnated lover.
The script, written by Brit Will Dunn, has been floating out in Hollywood since last year, when most of the studios passed on it. But thanks to James Cameron, the companies are now very interested in science fiction that can combine epic spectacle with mainstream crowd-pleasing emotion.
Dunn got his start with a spec called Children of the Gun, but while it didn’t sell, it did get him a meeting with Ridley and Tony Scott, who agreed to help develop his next project with an eye to getting it made.
And who knows? If Fox gets excited by the possibilities of Ion, Ridley Scott might even add it to his list of 7,000 current potential directing jobs. Or, maybe Tony could grab it, tweaking the concept to feature a man who must journey between worlds because they keep blowing up…