Paramount Studios has recently picked up some work by Andy Burg titled Huck. While the script is under wraps at the moment, the story will be based on the 1876 novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
Written originally by Mark Twain, the novel is mainly known for the mischievous teenagers Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. Originally Sawyer was presented as an all American boy who tends to dream big and scheme. Finn on the other hand is more of an social outcast who’s stuck with making tough moral choices. While the duo first meet in their youths, the project itself has been touted as a re-imagining, focusing on Sawyer and Finn as young adults. According to the Hollywood Reporter, there will also be an element of the supernatural involved.
So here is where I get a bit thrown for a loop. Some sites have been saying that the whole project will be a 21st century makeover, while others say this is a re-imagining closer to Snow White and the Huntsman. There are a few ways to take this.
One: The story is turned into a contemporary update like Jules Verne’s works have been recently turned to. See Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. In this scenario, I see Sawyer constructed out of a high school football quarterback who’s trying to make it big in life; lots of bad choices and poorly made commercial endorsements down by the car lot. While I see Finn as an emo misfit who tries to solve the world’s problems via blogging and hacking.
Two: The script which is likened to the style of Snow White and the Huntsman, turns the duo into story character slayers. Both banded together in face of a common foe. To speak to the rampant slavery that Finn has faced, the story will go the way of True Blood and substitute a supernatural critter in place of the oppressed.
Three: More believable is if this movie is cast from the same mould that brought us Sherlock Holmes. The adventures become the start of a bromance, so they’ll be in the beginning stages of bro-puppy love. A lot of bullet time will be used in fight scenes, while Huck and Finn utilize the most advanced technology known to brass and steam.
From Boomtron, Mina Kelly’s reaction went, “Again, I blame Twilight for this nonsense!”
I don’t think we can actually blame Twilight, but more a cross between the success of the Journey movies and the hype surrounding Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. For those not familiar, these are literary remixes and re-imaginings. What makes them valuable to studios is two things. 1) How familiar audiences already are with the stories for the nostalgia factor. 2) If the stories are in public domain which means they don’t have to pay for the intellectual property. It’s now just a matter of who gets to what first. Look at the Snow White movies that are being cranked out.
Already there’s Sherlock Holmes who’s more action than brains. Zombies mixed in with Pride and Prejudice. Honest Abe, the first male Slayer from the Whedonverse. Then on television we’ll see Detective Edger Allen Poe, macabre crimes unit. How long will it be before I get to see Hansel and Gretel: Witch Burners?
The movie will be produced by Peter Chernin and Dylan Clark alongside Matt Lopez. That’s right, the producers of Rise of the Planet of the Apes are doing this. The same one’s that let Draco Malfoy mishandle animals that would ultimately destroy us. You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!