Deadline: Timur Bekmambetov has won a spec auction for Maggie, a script that sparked a spirited auction today, with six bidders. Bekmambetov will produce a film that has a script by John Scott 3, and vfx wiz Henry Hobson set to direct. Why did so many bidders spark to the script? Aside from offering some inventive twists on the popular zombie genre, Maggie is a blueprint for a genre movie that can be made for between $4 million and $8 million. That budget range has suddenly become highly desirable for distributors looking to make genre films in the mold of Paranormal Activity.
USA Today
Jack Huston had the same reaction most other cinephiles probably did when hearing of a new Ben-Hur movie: “What?!”
There have been a few film adaptations of Lew Wallace’s 1880 biblical novel over the years, most notably the 1959 historical epic starring Charlton Heston that won 11 Academy Awards. But now that Huston is wearing the sword and sandals of Judah Ben-Hur in a new take arriving in theaters Aug. 12, the British-born actor sees firsthand how its sprawling landscape balances a very personal tale of one man’s journey toward redemption.
WC
As well as returning to the fold for the latest Terminator movie (and stealing just about every scene), Arnold Schwarzenegger is taking an entirely different path with the far more tender, far more nuanced Maggie, a zombie apocalypse movie with a more legitimate heart-beat than the genre typically offers. This isn’t your usual all guts and glory, hundreds of faceless kills zombie movie: it’s rather a touching, at times devastating look at what infection and loss actually mean in human terms.
BagoGames
From Lionsgate Entertainment comes a very different type of zombie movie: Maggie, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Abigail Breslin. The film, directed by Henry Hobson and written by John Scott, is probably the most realistic zombie movie I’ve ever watched.
Timur behind a zombie movie. That could be very interesting indeed. Especially if he goes back to his roots like Night Watch and Day Watch. And I'd imagine he'd be pretty hands on with this given it's a first-time director.