There had been talk of him directing **Ouija, the in-development film based on Hasbro's paranormal board game. Now though, it seems the glass has spelled out "Move on", and Pierre Morel is set to get behind the camera on the Sam Raimi-produced **EDF{
THR reports that Morel pitched his Ouija take to Universal executives last week, but didn't end up getting the job. Fortunate then, that he was talking to Raimi and Warners at the same time. EDF (it stands for Earth Defence Force) involves an alien invasion vanguard giving several of Earth's nations an embarrassingly destructive wake-up call, after which it becomes clear that a far larger fleet is approaching. Cue international efforts to stand in its way. They'll take our ray guns when they pry them from our cold dead hands.
It's a very familiar sounding set-up, especially with Skyline upon us and Battle: Los Angeles imminent. With Top Gun as an apparent touchstone, though, it sounds as if this may be focused on the military tech and space-plane dogfight aspects, which could work. Clearly Raimi saw something in the material, and Morel, who has proven action chops gained from Taken and From Paris With Love, might get the opportunity to recycle some of his - now abandoned - Dune ideas (not that the projects are much alike, but Morel had specific plans in mind to toughen up the space opera).
Andrew Marlowe (Air Force One, End of Days, TV's Castle) wrote the script, and Raimi is co-producing with Bill Block (District 9, Vanilla Sky, W). No start date yet.