One of the earliest movie rumors I found in Starlog was on page 7 of Issue #1, August 1976.
“With a whopper of a production budget. Universal and Paramount will jointly remake George Pal's classic When Worlds Collide. It has just been announced that Jaws man Stephen Spielberg will direct the film. “
On page 7 of Issue #2, November 1976 there was the following update:
”The script for the new Paramount/Universal remake of When Worlds Collide will be penned by Anthony Burgess, it has just been announced. Producers are Richard D.Zanuck and David Brown. It was previously announced that Jaws director Steven Spielberg would direct Worlds; but now that plans are firmer, John Frankenheimer has been assigned to the task. Production is to begin early in 1977. The film will be based (as was the George Pal version produced in 1951) on the 1932 novel by Philip Wylie and Edwin Palmer.”It was obvious that this remake never happened, but while doing some research I was surprised to learn that Spielberg maintained some interest in this project. In 2005 news surfaced that Spielberg would be producing a When Worlds Collide remake with Stephen Sommers writing and directing. It appears that at some point Spielberg moved to the directors chair, but according to this article the project was put on hold because of Roland Emmerich’s 2012 which has a very similar story. I haven’t found any information that the project is still in the works. It is currently listed with an Unknown status on IMDB.
Come on Hollywood, make the remake already. I've been waiting over 30 years to see this movie remade! And sombody make a movie out of Arthur C. Clark's Childhood's End too.
ReplyDeleteI loved the novel, but I dread what Hollywood would do with a movie adaptation of Childhood's End.
ReplyDeleteI wish they do Philip Wylie's Gladiator as a TNT two part TV mini-series. But keep it set in the 1885-1928 era. But alter the ending to do a new sequel set from the great depression, WWII, the Korean & Viet Nam Wars to Watergate.
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