Everything about this sentence is awful: Yogi Bear director Eric Brevig will reunite with his Journey to the Center of the Earth star Brendan Fraser for William Tell 3D.  This sounds like a disaster in the making---let's break it down.  Brevig parlayed his solid run as a visual effects of supervisor on such films as Total Recall, Men in Black, and The Day After Tomorrow into a directing career that, after two films, is the definition of uninspired.  Fraser's recent work is making it hard to maintain my policy of rooting for all Brendans.  And these two are joining forces for William Tell 3D, which is kind of title you make up to mock the 3D fad.  Gah.

Brevig replaces Nick Hurran in the director's chair; the $27 million production is relocating to Romania and Switzerland for a March 2012 start date.  Chad and Evan Law (Hero Wanted) are tweaking their script with a family audience in mind.  Hit the jump for more on their take.

Deadline passes along this synopsis from the producers:

Tell is a revered historical figure in Europe. Hermann Gessler, the local potentate of the Hapsburg monarch, forces Tell to shoot the apple off his son’s head because he refused to bow before Gessler’s hat. Tell drills the apple cleanly and wins both his and his son’s freedom. When Gessler asked Tell why he had two arrows in his quiver, Tell informed him that the second was for Gessler, had Tell missed with the first arrow. His defiance ignited an uprising against the Austrian government that led to the formation of Switzerland.

If this movie had an apple on its head, I'd aim for the heart.

william tell