Bryan Singer to Direct 'Jack and the Giant Killer'

Okay, this could be fun: Bryan Singer to Direct 'Jack and the Giant Killer' which is reporting from the fresh Hollywood Reporter announcement.

Jack is a slight reworking of (shocker!) Jack and the Beanstalk with a dash of The Brave Little Tailor. It dispenses with that "I'll sell you some magic beans, and some oceanfront property in Arizona" trope, and is instead set in motion when a giant kidnaps a princess. Obviously, that premeditated action is unacceptable, and it threatens the longstanding peace between men and giants. A young farmer named Jack is given the task to lead an expedition to the giants' kingdom in the hopes of rescuing her. Mark Bomback and Darren Lemke penned the script, which is reportedly a more mature take on the fairy tale than you or I might expect. I don't think that means any rampant sex, violence, or cussing but rather that it'll feature the kind of unblinking action that Lord of the Rings did. I mean, Jack's fighting giants. That's hardcore when done realistically.

And there's more about other versions of the tale at Bryan Singer Tackles Jack the Giant Killer For New Line, the only article I saw that admits that Giant-Killer is different from Beanstalk Jack. It even mentions the story's occasional ties to King Arthur. I'm impressed by a fully researched article!

Hopefully there will be some women actually doing stuff in the movie instead of waiting around to be rescued. The movies always seem to be weakest at updating women's roles.

This one is now slated for a 2011 release, so don't hold your breath or anything, but a change of directors is a pretty good sign it will go into development and actually appear on a screen somewhere, someday.

I enjoyed the first two X-Men movies Singer directed, but Superman Returns not so much although that was from script issues more than directing. (And I'm really picky about Superman. And I was disappointed that we got that movie instead of a better X-Men 3.) So I'm hopeful this will be a fun take on the fairy tale whatever the final storyline.

Oh, and if you want to read the original tale--kidnapped daughter included--try here at Jack the Giant-Killer.