Source: Heat Vision

The script was originally owned by MGM, but Warner Bros. got hold of it after the studio bought Ted Turner’s empire. This makes the third adaptation based on the property, with Sam Raimi directing The Great and Powerful Oz to serve as a prequel, and Surrender Dorothy with Drew Barrymore attached to direct.

Update: The Wrap gets word that Zemeckis will NOT be directing the film, but will instead be concentrating on his remake of Yellow Submarine for 2012.

The book, written by Kat Falls, is set in a near-future world in which rising ocean levels and natural catastrophes have led some people to homestead on the ocean floor, and kids to develop supernatural powers. Story centers on an underwater teenage boy and a surface girl who join forces to uncover a government conspiracy (Variety). Zemeckis, Steve Starkey, Jack Rapke are producing under ImageMover with Lee Stollman and Ellen Goldsmith-Vein under Gotham Group.

Zemeckis is in the middle of pre-production on The Yellow Submarine which is expected to be released in theaters sometime in 2012. Already lending their voices to the animated production is Cary Elwes, Adam Campbell, Dean Lennox Kelly and Peter Serafinowicz.

Yes, I’m scratching my head wondering how this came up as well.

Actors Cary Elwes, Peter Serafinowicz, Adam Campbell and Dean Lennox Kelly are all on board to take on each of the Beatles in the remake of the animated feature. Elwes will be portraying George Harrison, Kelly playing Lennon, Serafinowicz playing McCartney and Campbell will be playing Ringo Starr.

The original 1968 animated movie was based on the music by the Beatles and featured a storyline wherein a soldier called Old Fred meets up with the Beatles and travels in a yellow submersible to Pepperland (THR). Zemeckis is going to go nuts on the animation as always, using the same kind of motion capture animation that he used for previous films such as Beowulf and A Christmas Carol. The film will be presented in 3D as well, which could make for an interesting experience for this strange tale.

What do you think? With the addition of screenwriters Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman hopping back onboard, do you think this is the perfect recipe or will it sink like so many other in-development ideas?

Source: InContention

Zemeckis is hoping to make this version using his revolutionary performance-capture 3D digital production formula as used in The Polar Express and Beowulf.

In the original movie The Beatles, posing as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, are recruited to protect Pepperland from the Blue Meanies, with the Fab Four boarding a Yellow Submarine for the odyssey to the city under the sea.

Zemeckis is planning on a 2012 release to coincide with the Summer Olympics in London.

SOURCE: Rolling Stone

Source: Coming Soon

According to Incontention where they were lucky enough to see some footage:  “The first is something of a character initiation for Ebenezer Scrooge (Jim Carrey), in case you’re somehow unaware of his place in literary lore.  It isn’t the best scene for showing off the film’s 3D particulars but it is, however, a great indication of the detail and artistic direction of the film.  The sets are rendered as beautifully as Zemeckis’s “Beowulf,” though there is more of a glimmer of existence in the “lifeless eyes” that many were so loathe to observe in “The Polar Express.”  We also get a look at Bob Cratchit in this scene, one of actor Gary Oldman’s three gigs on the production.”

The second scene is much more technically eye-popping: Scrooge’s first encounter with one of the film’s four specters, former business partner Jacob Marley (Oldman again).  Marley’s ghost looks absolutely gorgeous, accented by a fluorescent blue hue that fortunately doesn’t glaze over the considerable detail on the face.  Marley’s chains make for a delightful opportunity with the 3D, allowing the gimmick and gag aspects of “Beowulf” to give way to a more alarming, visceral experience that is meant to frighten.  More of this, please.

We were also treated to the first trailer for the film, which will debut July 1.  Much of that footage is the same “trailerish” material that follows the train tour exhibition, but it’s more fleshed out, of course, with lots of indication (especially with the Ghost of Christmas Past stuff) that the film will be a thrilling experience and that the 3D will enhance that experience considerably.  But I was quite taken with a subtle piece of character-building tacked onto the end.

The camera follows a drifting snowflake, large in the foreground and illuminated by the 3D, as it settles onto Scrooge’s nose in close-up.  You would expect the flake to melt away with a bit of a “hiss” sound or something, but Scrooge being the cold-hearted man that he is, it merely rests there on the tip of his nose until he blows it away, quipping the expected: “Humbug.”

Source: In Contetion

Source: MovieSet

A Christmas Carol will be yet another 3D motion capture film from Zemeckis utilizing the same technology he perfected in Beowolf.

Source: Variety