With several TV successful TV shows under his belt, such as Alias and Lost, plus his hit cinema efforts as a producer and/or director, like Star Trek and Cloverfield, JJ Abrams is fast becoming one of the most powerful people in Hollywood. In the last days or so, rumours have emerged that he’s working on two new movie projects, as well as a new series for TV, which should spread his influence even further.
On the movie front, it’s believed he’s working on another super-secret Cloverfield type project, which will cost around $25 million to make, and is currently going under the title 500 Rads. There’s no info on what the movie will be about, although with its title suggesting radiation, some have speculated that it’s a zombie movie. There’s no director attached as yet, but Jeff Pinker is handling the screenplay.
The Wall Street Journal also suggests Abrams is working on bringing the Japanese toys, Micronauts, to the big screen. The robot vehicles/toys are designed to be interconnective so you can put them together in various different combinations. They’ve just been bought by Hasbro, which is hoping to make the toys massive by creating a big budget movie around them. At the moment Abrams is only in talks for the film, but he certainly seems interested in the filmic possibility of the Micronauts, which come from miniature alternate universe.
In the TV world, Abrams is executive producing the new NBC pilot, Undercovers, which has been described as a mix between Mr. & Mrs. Smith and The Bourne Identity. THR reports he he’s also in talks to direct the pilot episode, just as he did for Lost.
Whatever comes of all these, expect to see Abrams’ name on a lot more things in the future.