After Mars Needs Moms horribly tanked and Disney sunk the remake of Yellow Submarine, it looks like Robert Zemeckis has finally got the hint that everyone is a bit fed up of motion capture. The director is now in negotiations to direct Flight, a drama set up at Paramount that has Denzel Washington loosely attached to star.
The script is written by John Gatins and was originally set up at DreamWorks for him to direct, it then got moved to Paramount and was then looking for a director. And with his slate clean Zemeckis got the opportunity to jump in. The film centres on an drug addicted, alcoholic pilot who Washington is expected to play, The Hollywood Reporter gives a brief outline of the script:
When his plane’s engine malfunctions, the pilot manages to rescue the aircraft and its passengers, becoming a hero in the process. When the FAA investigates and finds evidence of drug abuse, it tries to sweep it to the side to help preserve the image of the captain, who is trying to change the course of his life.
Zemeckis hasn’t made a live action movie since 2000’s Cast Away but his back catalogue is enough to say that he will have no problem adapting back to it. It will also be nice to see him return to work and produce a film that doesn’t have characters with seemingly plastic faces.