Warner Bros Eyes ‘Island Of Dr. Moreau’

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros is going back to The Island Of Dr. Moreau. The studio and Appian Way partners Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson Killoran have set Lee Shipman & Brian McGreevy to pen a contemporary re-imagining of H.G. Wells’ classic novel. The intention is to make it a sci-fi film with a topical ecological message. Appian Way will produce with Mad Hatter Entertainment’s Michael Connolly.

The 1896 Wells book has been adapted for the screen several times with iconic participants: the 1932 film Island Of Lost Souls with Charles Laughton and Bela Lugosi, the 1977 pic with Burt Lancaster and Michael York, and the 1996 New Line pic that starred Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer. That last version didn’t fare well.

The writers and Connolly are are coming off of a successful run at Netflix, as their show Hemlock Grove got two Emmy noms. Series is based on McGreevy’s novel. CAA and Mad Hatter rep the scribes.

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