J.J. Abrams Is Producing a WWII Zombie Movie Called OVERLORD
J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot are producing an awesome sounding World War II zombie thriller called Overlord. The film is set up at Paramount Pictures, and it's set to be directed by Julius Avery (Son of a Gun) from a script written Billy Ray (Captain Philips) and Mark L. Smith (The Revenant). With these two talented writers on board, you can bet the script for this film is going to be great.
The story follows "two paratroopers who are caught behind enemy lines after their plane crashes on a mission to destroy a German Radio Tower in a small town outside of Normandy during the D-Day invasion. After reaching their target, the two paratroopers come to realize that besides fighting off Nazi soldiers, they also must combat against supernatural forces that are a result of a secret Nazi experiment."
This project has been sitting around at Paramount since 2007, and it's great to see that it's finally attracted a director and is gaining traction. According to Variety, the studio is already on the hunt for actors to take on the roles of the soldiers.
As for the director, I think he'll do a solid job with this project. Son of a Gun was his breakout film, and it was fantastic. He's currently developing the Ridley Scott-produced drug trafficking film The King of L.A. It'll definitely be interesting to see how he handles a film like Overlord. It sounds like it would be a fun project to work on.