Thar She Blows! 'Moby Dick' to Become Film

Timur Bekmambetov, director of Wanted, will be directing an adaptation of Herman Melville’s novel Moby-Dick. A loose adaptation, it seems (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing–as much as I love the novel, I recognize that it’s hard to translate into the filmic medium a lengthy chapter about the characteristics of the sperm whale as opposed to the right whale). The recent Beowulf was a significant departure from its source, and, while it wasn’t a great movie on its own, it was a fascinating commentary on the original poem. However, given that Beowulf‘s screenplay was partially penned by Neil Gaiman, and that Moby-Dick is being written by guys whose only previous films are frat-boy fare Accepted and the Olsen twins’ New York Minute, I’m not holding my breath for a masterpiece.