It has been almost 30 years since John Frankenheimer’s Island of Doctor Moreau—the one starring Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer—so clearly we are due for another take on the H.G. Wells classic.
This one, though, is not a straight adaptation, but a “modern reimagining” called Eyes in the Trees that stars Anthony Hopkins (Thor: Ragnarok, pictured above), Jonathan Rhys Meyers (The Tudors), Ashley Greene (the Twilight movies), Praya Lundberg (Supercell) and Thomas Kretschmann (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny). Here, per Variety, is the film’s summary:
Eyes in the Trees follows “a video journalist and his film crew who embark on a journey into an isolated forest, only to find their excursion turned into a fight for survival for not just themselves, but the entire human race. Vince Henway (Meyers) and his former protégé-turned-ex Channing Arneau (Greene) lead their crew into the heart of Monkey Ko off the coast of Thailand. Also known as ‘The Island of Death’ to the locals, the island holds rumors of forgotten government medical experiments and scientific genetic manipulations lead by Dr. Addis (Hopkins). What they find on the island is beyond their wildest expectations, a product of nightmares. Their search for answers quickly transforms into a fight for survival as they try to thwart Dr. Addis’ plan to ‘regress mankind,’ killing the majority of earth’s human population.”
This seems like a lot of detail, but then, the movie hasn’t begun filming yet, so presumably we will all forget some of this before it actually makes it to theaters. I have quite a few questions—they start with “Channing Arneau” and continue with “The Island of Death”—but I am also fascinated by this cast, and by the presence of Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who seems always just on the verge of re-attaining his Velvet Goldmine-era highs. (Someday!)
Eyes in the Trees is directed by Timothy Woodward Jr. (Studio City) and written by B. Harrison Smith (Where the Scary Things Are), Mike Manning (Powder Pup), and Dominic Burns (Madness in the Method). Production begins in Thailand later this year.
