Snow White and the Huntsman director Rupert Sanders is in final talks to adapt the short story The Juliet for Sony and New Regency.
Based on a short story by Alfred Bester, the film is a love story set against a near-future, science fiction backdrop. Screenwriter Henry Bean, who has written such films as The Believer starring Ryan Gosling and Basic Instinct 2, wrote the script, described as Bonnie & Clyde in space.
Deadline reports that Atlas Entertainment’s Charles Roven and Alex Gartner are producing with Frank Beddor of Automatic Pictures, which Roven set up at Sony. Sony and New Regency will share financing and distribution duties for the film, which should command a sizable budget.
Just last week we reported the possibility of Rupert Sanders taking over the Van Helsing franchise for Universal, with Tom Cruise starring. As this report stated Sanders and Universal were in “very early talks,” it would be unlikely that this will come about now that Sanders has his eyes on The Juliet.
In terms of his potential involvement in a Snow White and the Huntsman sequel, that seems unlikely given the Kristen Stewart debacle. It seems he might be just trying to put all that behind him, as he’d be switching studios in addition to projects. As we wrote in our review of it back in May, Sanders was able to visually dazzle, but simply didn’t have the narrative there to do much with. Because of this, it will be interesting to see if he can do anything with a solid story and script.
The Juliet is reportedly set to begin filming in the Spring, which suggests that Sony and New Regency are keen on getting this one into theaters as soon as possible. Expect to hear casting on this one shortly.