D.J. Caruso, director of such films as Disturbia and Eagle Eye, has been signed on to direct Jack the Giant Killer, a drama that takes a more adult look at the classic children’s story Jack and the Beanstalk.
The New Line Cinema produced film has been written by Mark Bomback (writer of Live Free or Die Hard and the upcoming Race To Witch Mountain) and produced by Neil Moritz (I Am Legend, Click). Here is the synopsis:
When a princess is kidnapped, a long-standing peace between men and giants becomes threatened, and a young farmer is given an opportunity to lead a dangerous expedition to the giant kingdom to rescue her.
As far as I can see this will be live-action which would be equal parts interesting and strange. To me this story would work very well done in some sort of animated form but live-action? That way it has a greater risk of coming off as cheesy, whereas you can get away with a lot more if it’s an animated CGI film. Unless news gets released to contradict the presumption, we can only assume it is indeed live action.
But what I do love about the idea is that it puts a darker stamp on what is originally a children’s story with a happy ending. I would be quite interested to see what could be done with a darker approach to the story, it definitely has potential to be something very interesting.
However I don’t think Caruso is the right man to hand the project to; I didn’t like his Rear Window rip-off Disturbia (it took me a few months to calm myself about that one) and although I enjoyed Eagle Eye for the over-the-top fun that it was, it’s not exactly a classic. And none of the rest of his body of work suggests he’s capable of anything other than cheap thrills and superficiality (in case you’re wondering he also did the Seven rip-off Taking Lives and the forgettable Two for the Money – if I’m missing any multi-layered masterpiece from his resume please let me know).
What do you make of Jack the Giant Killer and the fact that Caruso is the one to helm it?
Source: Variety and ComingSoon.net
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