Warners Plans Seven Film "Arabian Nights" Saga

[:eek:]

By Garth Franklin Wednesday July 23rd 2014 06:33PM
Warner Bros. Pictures has acquired a ninety-page "script-ment" from new scribe David Weil which lays out plans for a seven-film franchise based on the inter-connected stories in the famed folk tale collection "One Thousand and One Nights".
The plan is to re-imagine these classic (and in the public domain) stories as period-set big-budget CGI fantasy adventure tentpoles with modern themes. The 'script-ment' itself is essentially a bible for a potentially long-running franchise which 3 Arts will produce.
A compilation of numerous folks stories from ancient Arabic, Persian, Indian, Egyptian and Mesopotamian folklore, the famed work includes such stories as Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp, The Fisherman and the Jinni and The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor.
It isn't known which of these stories the franchise will draw from, or if the framing story of the work involving Scheherazade reciting of the tales to Sultan Shahriyar to avoid execution - will be incorporated.
Source: Deadline

 

[Quasimod0]

Seven films? Getting ahead of themselves a bit? Could be interesting though!

 

[Lord]

There are a lot of interesting tales in there, but seven films? And aren't they all going to feature numerous tales too? Though i doubt they'll use every single story.

Either way, Seven's pushing it, not even all the most successful film series are able to get there, this is a project that's nowadays better suited for TV

 

[flickchick85]

The guy must have laid out an amazing plan if they're willing to jump at such a huge project from a newbie. Not convinced they'll actually go through with it all, but I've gotta admire the ambition a bit, tbh.

 

[jmc]

And people say Warner Bros has no plans......

 

[Marvolo]

WB is the studio that pulled off an 8 film franchise based on a childrens book before that sorta thing was the norm. If there is a studio that could pull this off it is them. They just need to make sure the execs care about the project and not just the profits. David Heyman is the biggest reason the Potter films made it off the ground and never crashed and burned. He had a genuine passion for the books and films. Get someone like him on this and WB can do it. Providing of course the films find an audience.

 

[scifiwolf]

Honestly, lost me at CGI. I understand the logistics are friendlier given the length of time involved in a live action seven film series, but I would rather see live action.

 

[Majik1387]

As long as they don't design the characters in a white-washy way, this could be really cool.
And I really hope they depend more on real voice actors and less on celebrity voice actors.

There are a lot of interesting tales in there, but seven films? And aren't they all going to feature numerous tales too? Though i doubt they'll use every single story.

Either way, Seven's pushing it, not even all the most successful film series are able to get there, this is a project that's nowadays better suited for TV

Harry Potter, Star Trek, and countless horror movies say hello. Even now your precious Star Wars is there.

 

[MadVillainy]

I with it.

Good for him, I wish I got a break like that. As long as the movies are good, I'm cool with the idea

 

[Airwings]

Ali Baba, Aladdin and Sinbad getting one blockbuster each. Time for some classic Arabian fantasy/adventure, at last
Too bad it isn't live action. It will be less interesting then.

 

[Lord]

Harry Potter, Star Trek, and countless horror movies say hello. Even now your precious Star Wars is there.

Yeah sure, because any franchise can be as popular consecutively as Harry Potter, Star Trek or Star Wars, i'm sure fans of Narnia are very happy with their films and the promising future of the series, John Carter fans must also be very happy for the upcoming adaptations of the following books. Fantastic Four 3 with the old cast is also happening as we know.

Not sure if you realise this, but even popular film series that are a decade old or more haven't yet gotten to film 7, look at Spider-Man, Pirates of the Caribbean, Terminator, etc. Even the Planet of the Apes film series that didn't have any real competition when it was coming out only got to film 5 before being buried for some 30 years.

Horror films are much cheaper than this project seems to be, and even 7's a big number for them, Saw barely got there, and it was originaly supposed to get to 8. You're acting as if 7 films is a simple number and any film series can get there with enough preparation, but it simply isn't that easy, Harry Potter and Star Wars are some of the biggest movie franchises around, while Star Trek has been carefuly releasing a film now and then, focusing on one at a time through a large period of time, this project sounds interesting, but 7's a very ambitious number, even some films struggle to finish a Trilogy.

 

[The Guard]

Yes, please.