It’s been a while since John Moore – the immensely likeable Irish director behind last year’s pretty admirable stab at remaking The Omen – has been mentioned round these parts. In truth, he’s been taking some time off to recharge the batteries, but today it was announced that he’s back back back with a project that can be filed under both ‘wtf?’ and ‘potentially cool’.
Virulents, based on the Virgin Comics title, will tell the tale of two groups of soldiers – some American, some Indian – who cross paths while on duty in Afghanistan and stumble, as almost always happens in these situations, upon a hive of decidedly hostile vampire zombies.
Now, it’s tradition at this point for Empire to talk about yet another Hollywood film stealing IRA Zombies’ thunder, but in this case, we’ll concede a point to Virulents: zombies are cool, yes, but vampire zombies? Awesome! (And nobody mention Tobe Hooper’s Lifeforce)
Moore isn’t a film-maker who, by his own admission, has troubled the critics that much in his relatively short career, but his hyper-kinetic shooting style should lend itself well to Virulents, and a mix of the doom-laden tone of The Omen and the ultra-machismo ensemble and sandy landscapes of his best movie, the Flight Of The Phoenix remake, should be right up his street. Most refreshingly, though, Virulents isn’t a remake, a relief for a man who could have become bogged down in retreads (rumour has it he was offered The Day The Earth Stood Still not too long ago).
New Regency has optioned the comic book for 20th Century Fox to distribute, while John Cox will pen the script. Moore will co-produce along with Seth Jaret, and Virgin Comics’ Sharad Devarajan and Gotham Chopra, who promises that Virulents is “going to rock”.
No word yet on cast – it’s early days, after all, but we’ll keep you posted on this, and the inevitable IRA Zombies vs Virulents comic book spin-off, in due course.