Roland Emmerich‘s new Sci-Fi alien flick has been canned just before filming was to get underway. The news broke recently that after months of development, production has now been shut down.
The proposed film from the man who brought audiences Independence Day was set to be in the style of The Blair Witch project or the recent Paranormal Activity films which use the concept of found footage to craft a story from the ‘recovered’ media. The film entitled Zone was to be more performance based and would feature relative unknowns in the midst of an extra-terrestrial invasion. Rehearsals were underway with actors Peter Mackenzie and Brandon Scott set to play a journalist and a cameraman respectively.The most recent film which used this concept to document an alien style invasion was the exceptionally well crafted Cloverfield which boasted cutting edge FX and was produced by JJ Abrams.
Instead of the usual $100 million-plus budgets Emmerich was used to, this was said to be around the $5 million mark. It seems that with Paranormal Activity 2 drumming up $140 million so far globally, studios may have started thinking that too many of these concept films could dilute their appeal. The ‘found footage’ movies have alot of potential to attract audiences and are referent of the times we live in where almost anyone can capture events of significant magnitude with today’s portable devices.
In mid-October, Warner Bros picked up Dark Moon, a found footage flick from Olatunde Osunsanmi and over the weekend the Weinstein Co. announced they had picked up Apollo 18, another found footage project written by Brian Miller and directed by Trevor Camwood. The release date for Apollo 18 was looking at March 2011, a month or so before Zone‘s projected release and it’s likely these issues may have given the studios reason to opt out.
via: THR
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