After penning both Star Trek and Transformers 2, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are pretty much the hottest screenwriters in Hollywood at the moment. They’re also among the busiest, as not only are they both producers on the sci-fi TV show Fringe, but they’re also working on Star Trek 2, as well as writing Cowboys and Aliens, 2012: The War For Souls and The 28th Amendment, and that’s not to mention the numerous other movies, such as Matt Helm and Atlantis Rising, that they’re producing.
Not content with all that, they’re now in negotiations alongside Dreamworks to buy Will Beall’s pitch for a film called Xombie, based on a comic book by James Farr, which was itself taken from an online animated series. Although the actual plot for the film version isn’t known, the comic centres of a zombie cop called Dirge, who’s trying to save the few remaining humans from those members of the undead who aren’t quite as enlightened as he is. Orci and Kurtzman will produce the movie, with Beall writing.
Will Beall is quite an interesting firgure in his own right, as rather than being a full time screenwriter, he’s actually an LAPD homicide detective, and despite Dreamworks buying his pitch, he has no intention to stop serving and protecting.
Let’s just hope all these elements ensure Xombie is more interesting than most of the indistinguishable zombie movies that are being made at the moment.