‘Dark City’ Series In Early Development According To Director Alex Proyas

While The Wachowskis’ Matrix got the main attention for revitalizing the sci-fi genre, movies like The Thirteen Floor, The Cell, and Dark City attempted similar themes of reality bending and digital worlds. I also recommended checking out those movies if you haven’t seen them.

Interestingly enough, 1998’s Dark City shot on the same sound stages in Australia as Matrix, the Wachowskis even reused some of the Dark City sets, which explains how it might feel like the two sci-fi films share some DNA.

It’s been likely twenty years since anyone really thought about Dark City, but it’s director seems to want to revisit it. Alex Proyas (The Crow) has revealed during a Q&A via Bloody Disgusting that he’s working on developing a series based on the film.

“Dark City right now is really an intriguing one to me because we’re developing a series, a Dark City series. Which we’re in the very early stages [of] but I’m having to reanalyze in order to construct a new story. I’m having to go back and kind of jog my memory as to what we actually did and what I think worked and what I think didn’t work and reevaluate my own film, so that’s been a very interesting experience as well which I’ve not done before.”

The original film starring Rufus Sewell, Jennifer Connelly, Kiefer Sutherland, William Hurt and others had a dream-like noir feel to it and it would be interesting the angle a series would go, but it would likely depend on who was paying for it and who ultimately was behind it creativity.

DARK CITY – John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) awakens alone in a strange hotel to find that he is wanted for a series of brutal murders. The problem is that he can’t remember whether he committed the murders or not. For one brief moment, he is convinced that he has gone completely mad. Murdoch seeks to unravel the twisted riddle of his identity. As he edges closer to solving the mystery, he stumbles upon a fiendish underworld controlled by a group of ominous beings collectively known as the Strangers.

SOURCE: BLOODY DISGUSTING

‘Labyrinth’ Sequel Lands ‘Doctor Strange’ Director Scott Derrickson

Deadline reported earlier in the week that the long-gestating Labyrinth sequel has finally signed a director with Scott Derrickson. The project will be produced by The Henson Company and Sony’s TriStar Pictures.

The original 1986 fantasy musical was directed by Jim Henson starring a young Jennifer Connelly as Sarah and David Bowie as Jareth, The Goblin King.

LABYRINTH – Frustrated with babysitting on yet another weekend night, Sarah (Jennifer Connelly), a teenager with an active imagination, summons the Goblins to take her baby stepbrother away. When little Toby actually disappears, Sarah must follow him into a fantastical world to rescue him from the Goblin King (David Bowie). Guarding his castle is the labyrinth itself, a twisted maze of deception, populated with outrageous characters and unknown dangers.

The sequel’s script was penned by Maggie Levin.

It isn’t mentioned if Scott and his writing/producing partner C. Robert Cargill (Doctor Strange) will take a crack at working on the script.

How exactly the plan on tackling the second film remains to be seen and given the dark nature of the 80’s film, it’ll be very difficult to land another PG rating from the modern MPAA.

Scott Derrickson is best known for helming Marvel’s Doctor Strange and famously exiting Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness over creative differences that led to the hiring of Sam Raimi as a replacement.

Casting information wasn’t mentioned along with production and release dates. Given the current climate of production delays due to the global Coronavirus pandemic and backlogged projects we might not hear when they expect to begin filming for some time.

The Henson Company recently resurrected The Dark Crystal, another beloved Henson film from the 1980s, with their prequel series for Netflix titled The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.

SOURCE: DEADLINE