NEW YORK -- Summit is moving forward with "Countdown", a sci-fi action tale based on a classic "Twilight Zone" episode, and has attached scribe Michael Brandt to direct.
Brandt will make his directorial debut with the futuristic film, which revolves around a group of astronauts who land on a planet only to find a crashed spaceship and corpses that eerily resemble their own. They then must piece together where they are and whether they might in fact already be dead.
Summit production chief Erik Feig said the company chose Brandt to direct because he fits with the outfit's larger interest in supporting new talent.
The episode, titled "Death Ship", was penned by featured "Twilight Zone" scribe Richard Matheson, who based it on his own short story published in a sci-fi magazine a number of years earlier.
Brandt is rewriting the screenplay with his writing partner Derek Haas; it is based on an original screenplay by Stephen Gregg and Scott Burn. Brandt and Haas have collaborated on such movies as "3:10 to Yuma" and "2 Fast 2 Furious", and they wrote the screenplay for the upcoming tentpole "Wanted" from Universal.
"Countdown" originally had been set up in 2005 with Summit and Mandalay Entertainment under Summit's somewhat more limited previous incarnation, with Nick Wechsler producing along with Brandt and Haas.
Brandt will make his directorial debut with the futuristic film, which revolves around a group of astronauts who land on a planet only to find a crashed spaceship and corpses that eerily resemble their own. They then must piece together where they are and whether they might in fact already be dead.
Summit production chief Erik Feig said the company chose Brandt to direct because he fits with the outfit's larger interest in supporting new talent.
The episode, titled "Death Ship", was penned by featured "Twilight Zone" scribe Richard Matheson, who based it on his own short story published in a sci-fi magazine a number of years earlier.
Brandt is rewriting the screenplay with his writing partner Derek Haas; it is based on an original screenplay by Stephen Gregg and Scott Burn. Brandt and Haas have collaborated on such movies as "3:10 to Yuma" and "2 Fast 2 Furious", and they wrote the screenplay for the upcoming tentpole "Wanted" from Universal.
"Countdown" originally had been set up in 2005 with Summit and Mandalay Entertainment under Summit's somewhat more limited previous incarnation, with Nick Wechsler producing along with Brandt and Haas.
- 3/24/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Summit Entertainment and Mandalay Pictures have acquired the rights to Richard Matheson's Deathship, a short story and extended episode of The Twilight Zone from 1963 penned by Matheson. The project, now called Countdown, is being rewritten by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas from an original draft by Scott Burn and Stephen Gregg. Brandt and Haas will executive produce the Nick Wechsler, Summit and Mandalay production. Patrick Wachsberger and Erik Feig are overseeing for Summit, while Peter Strauss is shepherding for Mandalay. Countdown marks the first collaboration between Mandalay and Summit.
- 10/26/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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