Or as I like to call it, Redder Dawn: 2 Red, 2 Furious.
This is Hollywood screenwriter Stuart Beattie‘s directorial debut, an adaptation of the 2006 John Marsden novel of the same name, which tells the story of a group of young friends who, returning from a camping trip, discover their home town destroyed and its inhabitants imprisoned by an outside enemy force. They proceed to take the force on guerilla style.
Beattie has been in the business of scripting movies for some time now. Much like Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind, Batman and Robin), the man represents the best, and worst, of what Hollywood has to offer. He’s been credited with Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Collateral, but also with Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest, At World’s End and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.
This new film may look and feel slightly original, but it screams Red Dawn, starring C. Thomas Howell, Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen. That film actually was remade by MGM, but the update may now never see movie theaters.
All studio turmoil and narrative similarity aside, Beattie’s a reliable writer who certainly deserved a chance at the director’s chair. It’ll be interesting to see what he’s come up with.
Check out the trailer below [/Film]:
Tomorrow When The War Began opens in Fall 2010 (September 2nd in Australia).
What do you think of this trailer? Is it too much like Red Dawn? Or intriguing enough by itself?