COUNTDOWN begins at Summit!

By Matt Holmes / June 25, 2011

The revitalization of the writings of Richard Matheson continues. The Hollywood Reporter say the Matheson-scripted Twilight Zone episode Death Ship has been picked up by Summit Entertainment and will be filmed as a $30 million budget feature. It will be re-titled as The Countdown for 3:10 to Yuma and 2 Fast 2 Furious screenwriter Michael Brandt to helm as his debut film. Brandt will also work on the script for the movie with his long time partner Derek Haas who co-wrote the above mentioned movies and also the upcoming adaptations of Wanted and The A-Team with Brandt.

Death Ship is a pretty cool episode (all of Matheson's were) and it once again played around with the sci-fi writer's usual theme of 'what is reality' and our own sense of who we really are. The episode guest starred Jack Klugman (Quincy M.E.) as one of three space travellers in the year 1997 who find a similar spaceship to their own crashed on an alien planet, which carries the dead bodies of themselves!

You can find the rest of the episode HERE.

Anyone else picture Andy Serkis as the Mason character?

Although maybe not as cool or as fun as the Matheson scripted episode The Box which Richard Kelly has adapted, Death Ship still very much has a strong theme and premise behind it. There's lots of room for the story to branch out (which it will have to for a feature) and if it's done as smartly as something like Planet of the Apes or Robinson Crusoe on Mars, then it could be a great character piece.

Production could begin as early as the late Summer. This should be cool.