It's getting on for three years since the project was first announced, but that's nothing when your lifespan covers a millennium. Methuselah is still trudging through development at Warner Bros under the scrutiny of James Watkins and David Heyman, and he's now about to get a new screenplay, courtesy of Arash Amel.
Son of Enoch and grandfather of Noah (who appears elsewhere in News this morning), Methuselah lived to be 969 years old, during which time he did much begatting, the old goat. His death was such an event that God delayed the great flood for a week as a mark of respect.
None of which is especially relevant to the mooted film, which is an "elevated genre" affair about a thousand-year-old man who has "used his time on the planet to develop an unparalleled set of survival skills." It's being described as an action adventure, so expect those skills to involve Taken-style bad-assery, rather than any sort of Jeremiah Johnson mountain-man wisdom (though maybe Methusaleh will have that too).
Watkins became attached to direct this right after Eden Lake (Heyman is producing through his Heyday Films banner), and has stayed with it even through the distraction of The Woman In Black. The first script was his, but Amel will be starting from scratch on his own draft. He'll get cracking once he's finished with the I Am Legend** sequel/prequel/whatever-it-is.
Amel's first produced screenplay, The Expatriate, stars Aaron Eckhart and Olga Kurylenko, and is out in the autumn.