Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (Milk) has been tapped to pen Earthquake, a disaster pic produced by J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk for Universal. The picture is a fresh take on natural disaster fare and only shares a title and a subject with Universal’s previous effort in 1974 starring Charlton Heston. Earthquake may now set itself up to compete with New Line’s own earth shaking project, San Andreas 3D. Deadline reports that the Universal project first had David Seltzer (The Omen) attached to write in 2008 and now gains momentum with Black in the mix. The writer’s most recent projects include J. Edgar, an adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s book Under the Banner of Heaven for Warner Bros. and a script for Fox’s Barefoot Bandit.
