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by Tippi Blevins September 23, 2008 2:14 PM

Universal Pictures set sail this morning, armed the harpoon guns, and took aim at a classic. According to Variety, the prey was Herman Melville's Moby Dick, which Universal will film as a "reimagining" with director Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted) and scribes Adam Cooper and Bill Collage. The writers "revere Melville's original text, but their graphic novel-style version will change the structure." Cooper calls it the original "action-adventure revenge story," for which they will get to "capitalize on the advances in visual effects". According to the report, "Ahab will be depicted more as a charismatic leader than a brooding obsessive." At this point, poor dead Herman Melville crawls out of his plot at Woodlawn Cemetery and is about to capitalize on the advances in Google to look up the offices of Universal Pictures.

I'm not exactly a classicist (I'll take West Side Story over Romeo and Juliet any day), but even I cringe a little bit at their description of a newly reimagined Captain Ahab. Obsession is really kind of central to the whole thing. If you take away the brooding obessession, it's not really Moby Dick anymore. What you've got is Charismatic Guy On a Boat Looking Around For a Whale.

Bekmambetov wants to "apply the visual flourish he displayed on... Wanted." Which is great for Wanted, but for Moby Dick? I get visions of whales doing gymnastic fighting moves and using their blowholes to shoot the wings off flies. Maybe Ahab's ivory leg -- a daily reminder of his last encounter with the white whale -- will be replaced by a high-tech harpoon gun.

As of yet, there's no word on when this project will get underway, but like a beached whale, it'll be hard to miss.

TAGS: Moby Dick, remake, Timur Bekmambetov, Wanted

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