Andy Vajna andMario Kassar's C-2 Pictures, which produced one of the summer's mostanticipated pictures in Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines, is preparing an epic fantasy trilogycalled Evermere whichhas landed at Sony Pictures. Describing the project as "Lord of The Rings meets Harry Potter," Vajna told Screen that he thought thefirst installment in the film would be the company's next film before thecameras.

The trilogymarks the first such to go into production since New Line's risky experiment TheLord Of The Rings, allthree instalments of which were shot in one go at an estimated cost of $270m.Of course the risk paid off with worldwide theatrical revenues alone on thefirst two films at some $1.8bn. Vajna said that, although Evermere is still in preparation stages, thethree films will not be made at the same time.

C-2 worked withSony on its first two pictures. The studio bought I Spy outright and purchased internationalrights to T3 once thefilm had begun principal photography. Warner Bros won the bidding war fordomestic rights to T3.

Evermere was written by David Goyer (Blade I& II, The Crow) andJames Robinson (who wrote Fox's upcoming summer epic The League OfExtraordinary Gentlemen)and bought as a spec by C-2 in 1998 for some $1m. It tells the story of a 17year-old orphan who discovers that he is heir to a throne in an alternateuniverse (called Evermere) and travels there to usurp his corrupt uncle who hasseized the throne. Chuck Russell was originally attached to direct, but thereare currently no director or cast attachments to the project.

"It's anexciting adventure set in a new world and is a wonderful romp for teenagers,"said Vajna.

Between them,Vajna and Kassar have produced and financed some of the most ambitious films ofthe last two decades including Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Total Recall,Stargate, Cuthroat Island, Rambo II & III Die Hard With A Vengeance, Evita,Nixon and T3.

Topics