Roland Emmerich's Alien Invasion Sci-Fi Film THE ZONE is Dead
Last month it was announced that director Roland Emmerich was going to direct a low-budget alien invasion sci-fi film called The Zone. He was planning to shoot the film in the style of the recently popular "found footage" genre. This is the same style used for films such as The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield and Paranormal Activity.
The movie was supposed to start shooting next week, and now it's not. The film project is dead. According to the directors representation "This is not a project (Emmerich) is pursuing at this time." Well, he was pursuing it last week a whole crew of people were set up and ready to work! Of course members of the production are at a loss as to why the film was shut down. There are a couple of reason that are going around as to why we wont see this film happen:
1. The found-footage trope is becoming overplayed.
2. The Zone would have been released a scant weeks after another found-footage sci-fi movie.
So the reason the film isn't being made is because too many people are making "found footage" type movies. I think it's interesting that this could be the reason, for the fact that this filmmaking style has proven to be successful among audiences. Here's a movie that they can make on a low-budget and easily make a profit. If this the reason they shut it down, it's a pretty stupid reason. It's like one studio saying, "Hey lets not make this comedy because there are three other studios making comedies as well. Oh! and the other comedies are going to be released around the same time." What kind of logic is this?
Personally just I don't think Emmerich knows how to make a movie without spending over $100 million dollars on it. I thought this low-budget film would have been a good exercise in film direction, give him something new and different to do.
In the end, it's just one less Emmerich movie out in the world. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I mostly feel bad for all those people that are going to lose work because it.
