Caffeinated Clint
Stephen Sommers has signed on to direct "Night at the Museum" for 20th Century Fox, says The Hollywood Reporter.
While taking on the Fox film, he is stepping aside from writing/directing/producing chores on Paramount Pictures’ "When Worlds Collide." Steven Spielberg, who directed Paramount/DreamWorks’ summer sci-fi hit "War of the Worlds," is boarding "When Worlds Collide" as a producer and will develop the film for Paramount.
"Museum," which is loosely based on Milan Trenc’s children’s book "The Night at the Museum," will be produced by Chris Columbus and Michael Barnathan through their 1492 Pictures. Sommers and partner Bob Ducsay also are producing through their Sommers Co. The script was penned by Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, with revisions by Scott Frank.
The family comedy centers on a goodhearted but bumbling security guard at the Museum of Natural History who accidentally trips an ancient curse that causes the animals and insects on display to come to life, wreaking havoc in the area.
Sommers, whose helming credits include "The Mummy" and "Van Helsing," had been attached to write and direct "Collide," a remake of a 1951 sci-fi film that starred Richard Derr and Barbara Rush.
