Anna Daniels
Danny Boyle will direct Methuselah for Warner Bros., with hopes of launching a franchise. And Boyle and Warners have lined-up a great lead actor to get things going: Michael B. Jordan. Early drafts of the script were inspired by the biblical figure of Methuselah, who lived for 969 years. But a “new approach” is being taken now, which suggests they might want to change the title.
Variety has the scoop on Methuselah, a new pic from Danny Boyle that will star Michael B. Jordan. At one point, Tom Cruise was attached to star, and WB really would like to turn this into a franchise – which is par for the course these days. In the Bible, Methuselah is notable for his exceedingly long life, which spanned almost 1000 years (although there’s some debate about whether or not this is a mistranslation). And that’s really all there is to say about the guy, honestly. He’s known for being really, really, really old.
While this project was initially inspired by that story – presumably the main character would be someone who has lived a very long time, like Highlander – Variety says “that has changed, and the creative team is taking a new approach with the plot.” Which means we really know absolutely nothing about this movie! How exciting!
In 2016 – back when Cruise was still attached – Joachim Rønning was tapped to direct Methuselah from a script by David Heyman. As Deadline reported at the time:
Warner Bros and Heyman have been dancing with this project for quite some time and Cruise has been attached for a while but bringing Rønning aboard breathes new life into a project that has such high expectations…
This will be an epic vehicle for Warner Bros that calls for someone of his stature to take on the heavy-hitting role of a man who lived for almost 1,000 years without ageing, all while developing a set of unparalleled survival skills.
Boyle was previously attached to helm the new Bond pic No Time to Die, but parted ways due to creative differences. Now, with Methuselah, he’ll have a chance at another (potential) franchise. I’m not the biggest fan of Boyle – I appreciate his skill, I just tend to not enjoy his movies – but having Michael B. Jordan in the lead is an immediate attention-grabber. Jordan is a great actor, and I’m always up to see something new from him.
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