After losing out on directing “Ouija” to McG — a decision that must have surely kept him up nights — and with the remake of “Escape From New York” seemingly stalled, director Breck Eisner is looking for something to do and it looks like he’s ready to jump on a bewitching new project (sorry).
Deadline reports that Summit is in early talks with Eisner to take on “The Last Witch Hunter.” Written by Cory Goodman, who has “Priest” and “Apollo 18” to his credit, his ‘Witch Hunter’ script actually placed on last year’s Black List which makes us hope that it’s not total dreck. The story centers on the titular witch hunter, who is tasked with preventing a bunch of witches and warlocks from repopulating. Much kicking ass presumably ensues.
Interestingly, Summit first acquired the franchise potential project for director Timur Bekmambetov last spring, but he’s since moved on to “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.” We haven’t had a chance to flip through the script yet but it’s easy to see why the studio wants to get this running — it falls right into the supernatural sweet spot executives seem to be falling over themselves for these days. But with the guy who made “Sahara” and “The Crazies” at the helm, that script had better be worth its insider praise.