Sci-Fi Updates Being Developed Of 'Heart Of Darkness' And 'The Count Of Monte Cristo'

It's probably too early to say that adapting classic stories into futuristic sci-fi tales is going to be the new Snow White, Wizard of Oz or even WikiLeaks trend. I mean, it's just coincidence that a sci-fi 'update' of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness was announced yesterday and today we have a very similar new version of The Count of Monte Cristo announced, right? It can't be that this is the sort of thing we'll be hearing about for the next year, or is it?

Variety reports that the new The Count of Monte Cristo was written by Ian Shorr, and that Warner Bros. picked up the rights to develop it into a film. All we've got storywise is that this is an update of the classic tale in which "a young man is unlawfully sentenced to an island prison and escapes, then transforms himself into the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo and systematically destroys those who manipulated and enslaved him. "

And then there is Heart of Darkness, which Pete mentioned earlier in Page 2. Peter Cornwell (The Haunting in Connecticut) will direct this new version as "a spacebound sci-fi pic," according to Variety. Quite a few people might know the famous cinematic incarnation of Heart of Darkness: that obscure movie called Apocalypse Now.

It's easy to imagine how Hearts of Darkness could very easily be put in a sci-fi setting and not suffer at all and probably also remain a lot more faithful to the original work than did Apocalypse Now. Does it have any hope of being nearly as good? Probably not, but that's not our job to worry about right now. Tony Giglio and Branden Morgan wrote this version of Heart of Darkness, and the film will carry the title Into the Darkness.

Adapting classic literary properties into sci-fi versions is hardly new, so we won't really call this a trend yet. Wait until tomorrow, when a sci-fi version of...let's guess Remembrance of Things Past is announced.