Disney to develop “Paladin” space-set sci-fi adventure

PanARMENIAN.Net - The studio behind John Carter is heading back to outer space, The Hollywood Reporter said.

Disney has set Max Borenstein, the scribe behind Legendary Pictures' in-development fantasy The Seventh Son, to write a space-set sci-fi adventure called Paladin.

Secret Machine's Justin Springer is producing the project, which he and Borenstein recently set up.

Despite what is shaping up as a disappointing opening weekend for John Carter, Disney is not shying away from epic or genre material. Paladin's logline is being kept under the radar, but it is described as a big sci-fi adventure movie. And while much of Disney's development slate is filled with adaptations of existing material - like its Angelina Jolie project Maleficent, based on Sleeping Beauty - this is an original story.

Borenstein is an up-and-coming scribe whose first movie credit could be Seventh Son, the adaptation of Joseph Delaney's book The Spook's Apprentice. The movie is preproduction with a cast that includes Jeff Bridges and Kit Harington.

Borenstein, repped by UTA, Anonymous Content and Abrams Garfinkel, also worked on Warners' remake of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Godzilla, the latter of which is being developed by Legendary.