You've heard of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, but have you ever considered Sir Isaac Newton: Action Man? xXx director Rob Cohen has, and THR reports he and Gene Kirkwood, who executive produced Rocky, are developing a proposed franchise with the legendary mathematician and physicist at its center. I can imagine the teaser now: an apple falls from a tree limb, but rather than it knocking Newton's noggin and inspiring his gravity theory, it's snatched mid-air by Newton's powerful fist and hurled at the camera with a furious might!
Cohen will pen the screenplay, which posits Newton as a detective and head of the British Mint. BiteSize Entertainment, a recently minted multiplatform studio, is backing the project, and will be behind its cross-media branding, including a graphic novel whose design will be overseen by Cohen. Kirkwood described this multi-pronged media approach, saying
"We see this as a real opportunity to redefine the concept [of the movie] from day one, using multiple channels and outlets to more creatively develop and extend the characters and storyline while generating huge excitement in advance of the theatrical release."
Cohen has just completed post-production on Summit Entertainment's crime-thriller Alex Cross, and so seems in the right mindset to spin a tale of mystery and intrigue. Though with spectacle-driven titles like The Fast and the Furious and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor to his credit, I'm having a hard time picturing Cohen's proposed Newton flick. And frankly, I like that about it. Personally, I enjoy these sorts of radical revisions of history, in theory if not always in practice. But as this project has just been announced I can't help but speculate this picture's budget may well be determined by how the historical fiction/action feature Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter fares at the box office.
