Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer have a very good relationship, with the House Of Mouse seemingly willing to fund any project the producer wants to make. And as it’s an arrangment that made the studio billions over the years, it’s probably sensible they should keep him happy. Now Variety reports that Disney has bought the pitch Lightspeed, for Bruckheimer to produce.
In fact it’s already seeming like a bit of a Disney dream team, as the screenplay will be written by Pirates Of The Caribbean co-writer Terry Rossio, along with Bill Marsilii. The duo previously wrote Deja Vu, which Bruckheimer also produced for Disney. However if you’re going to put a group like that together it’s going to cost you, with Disney said to have made one of the biggest pitch deals of the last couple of years, putting down over a million upfront, against $3.5 million if the movie is made (although that’s cheap compared to Deja Vu, where the script cost $8 million, and still holds the record for the biggest pitch sale ever).
The live action, 3D movie will centre on a young space pilot who lands a spot on the Earth Interstellar Racing Team and will take his ship across the galaxy as an interstellar war approaches. With Bruckheimer attached, expect this to be a very big, shiny and action-packed movie. Interestingly, while the producer has an impressive track record covering everything from Top Gun and Pearl Harbor to Con Air and Pirates, he’s never made a full-on space opera before, with the closest he’s ever gotten being Armageddon.