News: ANGEL FIGHT!!! Milton's 'Paradise Lost' Heading for the Big Screen

"Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heaven."
-Paradise Lost

Spoken like a true sadist. Or director Scott Derrickson [director, The Exorcism of Emily Rose]. Derrickson, who is set to see the big screen release of his latest project 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' on December 12, has confirmed that 'Paradise Lost' is now in the development stage of production.




Paradise Lost is the 17th century poem written by John Milton about Lucifer's falling out with God, the resulting battle for Heaven, and his eventual forced exit, as well as his interaction with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, which ended with their expulsion from garden.

Can you say, "The Devil made me do it?" Eh, it didn't work for Adam and Eve either.




In an interview with SciFi Wire, Derrickson spoke about the challenges of bringing the epic poem to life:

... It's a challenge from a budgetary standpoint, because you've got to create heaven, hell and the Garden of Eden is still part of the story. But the gift of the story, from a budgetary standpoint, is those three locations are really the locations of the movie, and so it's not like The Lord of the Rings, where you've got that kind of scale but you're changing locations all the time. ...

I think that the creation of heaven is the thing that's the most challenging, but it's also the thing where I think we're making the most headway and developing ideas that are really, really fantastic. I mean, there are some visual ideas that are coming to the table that I haven't ... seen before. ... For me, the big touchstone directive for doing this is physicality. ... There's a lot of CGI in Day the Earth Stood Still, because I thought the material--like the spheres, these sort of things--were suited to what CGI does well, you know, in that you can get a realism from it that's better than using real materials. ...

--- Source: Sci Fi Wire - http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=3&id=62650

While tackling the daunting task of bringing Heaven and Hell to life on the movie screen, Derrickson admitted that he's not beyond asking for a little sage advice. He reported that he will be tapping the shoulder of visual mastermind director Guillermo del Toro for ideas, claiming that he is "going to have dinner with him [del Toro] later this month to talk..."

Wouldn't you like to be a fly swarming around that table!

Luckily for Derrickson, budget won't be a big issue when making the film. Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures are collaborating in the production of the film and "they really seem to be behind the vision of this movie." Derrickson said. So apparently the studios are willing to fork over the big bucks to make this new project a mega-success.




I myself will be curious to see who takes down the role of the fallen angel Lucifer. Derrickson, of course, was hush-hush about the actors being considered for the part, claiming, "I'm doing one more polish with the writer [Stuart Hazeldine] on the script, and then we're going to send it out, so I wouldn't want the actors who I have in mind to hear about it."

Oh, Scott, you old tease!

Because making Heaven a reality is a complicated process, no release date, tentative or otherwise, has been set. Since talk about the film has been circulating for as far back as 2006, we can only hope that the heavenly battle will ensue within the next few years. 'Til then I'll keep my eyes peeled for updates and any random news about angels plummeting from the sky.

Cheers ~