George R.R. Martin's IN THE LOST LANDS in development as a movie starring Milla Jovovich & Dave Bautista

George R.R. Martin's 1985 short story "In the Lost Lands" is headed to the big screen. Paul W.S. Anderson (Mortal Kombat, Event Horizon, Resident Evil, Alien vs. Predator) is planning to direct the film, with wife and favourite actress Milla Jovovich already slated to star, alongside Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy, Blade Runner 2049, Dune).

The story follows a queen who sets out to acquire the secret of shapeshifting, to which end she hires the sorceress Gray Alys (Jovovich), who embarks into the Lost Lands to find the secret, allying with the drifter Boyce (Bautista) along the way.

Anderson and Jovovich have become synonymous with solid, B-movie pulp in recent years and Bautista has shown canny judgement in his projects so far, so this could end up being quite interesting.

Amazon developing EVENT HORIZON TV series

Cult SF horror movie Event Horizon is being rebooted as a TV series for Amazon.

Paramount Television has teamed with the streamer to adapt the original movie into a new format. The film, starring Sam Neill, Joely Richardson and Laurence Fishburne, was directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and released in 1997. Anderson was not keen on the original cut, which was rushed out to replace James Cameron's Titanic in the schedule when the latter had to be delayed by several months due to post-production requirements. However, the graphic horror did not find a receptive audience in the cinema and bombed at the box office.

Despite its poor box office, the film performed incredibly well on VHS rental and in sales and became a cult hit, to the point that Paramount asked Anderson to make a director's cut. However, the original film footage of the extra material was lost. A VHS copy of the material was eventually recovered, but was not of sufficient quality to be reintegrated into the movie.

Event Horizon is unusual in being an SF horror movie in which the horror is supernatural in origin rather than alien (like Alien) or of human origin (such as Sunshine).

Adam Winter is developing the TV project. His directed the recent Blair Witch reboot and the live-action Death Note, which both had lukewarm receptions, but also the better-received The Guest and You're Next. The project has not been formally greenlit yet.