“Zombieland” and “Venom”writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick spoke recently to Firstshowing about their upcoming epic sci-fi war movie, “Earth vs. Moon” which was pitched to Universal with Scott Stuber (The Kingdom, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, The Wold Man) producing.
According to the writers, “Earth vs. Moon” will deviate from “Zombieland,” with Wenick describing it as a “hardcore, 300-style movie with some comic relief to it, but about the Earth and a colony on the moon essentially in a civil war.”
Originally thought that it’d make a great video game, “Earth vs. Moon” will be “set about 300 or 400 years in the future” says Reese.
“It’s about two societies at war, but it’s also about a family, not at war, but a fractured family. Half of them have gone to the moon and the other half are still on Earth and so they are on opposite sides of this conflict and we wanted to make sure that as big of movie as it’s going to be, it works on a small level. It works on a personal level, the way we like to think about Zombieland working. It’s just this huge post-apocalyptic landscape, but we really want it to work on an interpersonal level for just a few people who are the stars.”
He says that the concept comes from this TED speech that Stephen Hawking gave “about the necessity to colonize other worlds because of the inherent dangers on Earth, nuclear dangers, biological dangers, and the need to have a back-up society.” They continue by saying that it’s such a “huge movie” that “it’s either going to be made at a grand scale for $200 million or not at all.”
A second draft of the screenplay is currently in the works.
And if “Earth vs. Moon” ever goes gets green lite, they hope to acquire the services of Will Smith for the lead. Practically non-negotiable, the duo have even named their main character Will hoping to entice him into the role.
With the success of “Star Trek” and Cameron’s much hyped “Avatar” in the works, there is little doubt that the sci-fi genre will soon become the next fad, ultimately replacing comic book superheroes.