Since December, every movie studio has had exactly one mission: find the next Avatar. From Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity to the new Channing Tatum movie announced earlier today execs are foaming at the mouth to find a movie that can go over the $700 million plateau. What does this mean? Just like every comic book property after the release of X-Men, every sci-fi story you've ever heard of is about to sell the movie rights.
The latest in this long line is Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, which has just been optioned by Fox, according to The Los Angeles Times. Adapted previously in 1980 as a miniseries staring Rock Hudson, the story, and this is not a joke, is about humans fleeing from a dying Earth to colonize Mars only to cause conflict with the natives.
Just to make sure I got this straight, I want to lay it all out. The biggest problem Avatar had was its unoriginal storyline, which has been done a countless number of times, from Fern Gully to Dances With Wolves, and, to capitalize on its success they want to make a movie that has almost the exact same premise? This is mind-numbingly idiotic. I understand wanting to make a 3D, mostly-CGI film like Avatar - these are businesses and there's physical proof that people will eat that kind of stuff up. But is this really the only way? It's possible that because I haven't read the stories that make up the collection that there's something broader happening underneath the surface, but, being in a profession where I read and write about Hollywood all day, I'm also not willing to bet on it.
