Stuart Beattie has a number of highly-anticipated films to his name as a screenwriter, but unfortunately, we won’t get to see his version of three of them. While talking to Beattie about his upcoming directorial effort, I, Frankenstein, he also offered an update on three other scripts he’s penned for projects that are still in the works Without Remorse, Tarzan and Tomorrow, When the War Began 2.
Beattie proclaimed that “Without Remorse” is his favorite Tom Clancy book, but admitted:
“I did that adaptation, god, ten years ago or so. I don’t know. And I don’t know what’s happening with it.”
However, even though Beattie is out of that one, he did mention the possibility of Christopher McQuarrie (Valkyrie, Edge of Tomorrow) taking over and starting from scratch.
Beattie is in a similar position on David Yates’ Tarzan. Beattie explained that he was involved while Stephen Sommers was attached to direct, but when that fell apart, Sommers left and Beattie went with him. However, Beattie was willing to give us a sense of what he hoped to do with the iconic character through his script.
“It was the idea that, you know Tarzan’s been told so many times and you’ve got to do it differently, so it was more like the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ version of Tarzan where it was a witch doctor in the jungle and he was raising animals back from the dead, so there was this great elephant graveyard scene where the elephants come back and they’re half decomposed. It’s unnatural in the jungle and so Tarzan had to set nature back to being nature.”
Sadly Tomorrow, When the War Began 2 is also a no-go for Beattie. Tomorrow, When the War Began marked Beattie’s first go behind the lens and even though it’s a successful and highly enjoyable adaptation, the folks behind the film didn’t move quick enough to lock Beattie in for the sequel. He explained:
“I wrote outlines for the second and third film. I begged and begged and begged and begged. I said, Please, just let me write the script, let me write the script,’ and by the time they finally decided to hire me to write the script, I’d taken Frankenstein. You know, they just took too long and you’ve got to keep working, you know?”
Even though this knocks three projects off Beattie’s upcoming slate, the guy still has about ten others with potential and, of course, a finished feature on the way, too. Catch the clip of Beattie discussing Without Remorse, Tarzan and Tomorrow, When the War Began 2 below and keep an eye out for our full chat with the writer/director on I, Frankenstein closer to the film’s January 24 release.
