Robert Zemeckis in Talks to Direct HERE THERE BE MONSTERS

Now that he’s moved off his motion-capture kick, director Robert Zemeckis is headed back to live-action films.  His next film will be the drama Flight starring Denzel Washington, and Zemeckis has also been in talks to direct the time-travel flicks Timeless and Replay along with a 3D adaptation of the 1966 Mattel action figure Major Matt Mason starring Tom Hanks.  Now Zemeckis is circling yet another picture as The Wrap reports that the Oscar-winning director is in talks to helm Here There Be Monsters.

Brian Hegleland (Robin Hood) wrote the screenplay which imagines that real-life Revolutionary War naval hero John Paul Jones fought sea monsters.  Back in April, we reported that the plot “focuses on a former British naval officer (presumably Jones) who’s hired to investigate the disappearance of a number of merchant ships. Once there, he and his crew encounter a sea serpent (naturally) and must battle the monster in order to get out alive.”  I imagine the script leaves out the parts about Jones’ early career working on slaving ships or how in 1770 he flogged one his sailors to death.  That’s not heroic at all.