Some writer news recaps for you today.  Here they are in brief:

  • Warner Bros. has tapped I Am Legend 2 screen writer,  Arash Amel, to do a page-one rewrite of director James Watkin's Methuselah draft.
  • Universal Pictures is looking to Contraband scribe Aaron Guzikowski to turn in a new draft of Evan Spiliotopoulos's treatment of Herman Melville's Moby Dick.

Hit the jump for more details on each project.

First up from Variety comes the

moby-dick

news that Amel will turn in a fresh new draft of Methusaleh. The original draft, written by director Watkins (The Woman in Black), followed a 1,000-year-old man who developed an extensive set of survival skills during his lifetime.  The picture is set as an action-adventure film and will be produced by David Heyman of the Harry Potter franchise.  Amel is expected to begin work on Methuselah after turning in his draft of the I Am Legend sequel, which  Akiva Goldsman, Will Smith and James Lassiter's Overbrook Entertainment are producing.  Amel's first produced script, The Expatriate, debuts this fall; his Black List script, Grace of Monaco, is set to star Nicole Kidman as Grace Kelly.

Also from Variety is the report that Guzikowski will polish up a new draft of Moby Dick. The original treatment was turned in by Adam Cooper and Bill Collage (both of Tower Heist) and did away with Ishmael's first-person narration to focus instead on the destructive rampage of the White Whale prior to its interactions with Captain Ahab's ship, the Pequod. The draft also spun Ahab as less revenge-driven and more charismatic.  Guzikowski's rewrite of Spiliotopoulos's draft is expected to incorporate notes from director, Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted).  The hope is that the next iteration can trim the budget.