Last week we reported that after years directing mega-budget disaster movies, Roland Emmerich was going to take alien invasion low budget with The Zone, a sub-$5 million ‘found footage’ thriller.
At the time it was said production was due to begin later this month, but now it appear that despite the small budget, the whole thing has fallen through. THR reports that with only a week to go until shooting, The Zone has been shut down. No official reason has been forthcoming, other than representatives for the director saying, “This is not a project (Emmerich) is pursuing at this time.”
However there’s speculation that backers were worried that the ‘found footage’ idea was being overplayed, especially as The Zone had a release date next March which was very close to the similarly styled Apoolo 18, the Timur Bekmambetov produced movie about NASA finding alien life during a secret moon mission. Paranormal Activity director Oren Peli also has Area 51 in the works, which is also a ‘found footage’ flick about possible alien life.