Corona | Coming Attractions

Screenwriter Stuart Beattie has adapted the popular young adult novel Tomorrow, When the War Began into a screenplay that he plans on directing. The G.I. Joe and 30 Days of Night screenwriter is Australian and so too is the book; since it's publication in 1993 and with the subsequent six other novels that followed, the Tomorrow series has become such a big hit for readers down under that it's taught in Australian schools. Author John Marsden went on to create a sequel series to the Tomorrow septology called The Ellie Chronicles, currently up to its third volume.

Beattie wants to begin shooting the film in his native Australia come September and Omnilab Media, the Sydney-based finance company backing the project, wants to make three films minimum from Marsden's books. When asked by The Hollywood Reporter about the book's similar premise to the 1984 American movie Red Dawn (which is getting remade), Beattie responded by saying, "I don't want to make Red Dawn. Do you remember when The Full Monty and Striptease were coming out together? They came out within months as the exact same premise -- the parent strips for money so they can see their kid. But completely different. One was all flash and rockin' body, and the other was completely the opposite, of total insecurity about getting up onstage. We're more like The Full Monty." [Full story]