'To the White Sea' moves forward, without the Coen brothers

In the early 2000s, before their brief creative downfall with Intolerable Cruelty and their The Ladykillers remake, the Coens brothers sought to bring to the screen James Dickey's WWII survival adventure To the White Sea. A screenplay based on the novel was written by the filmmaking siblings, but budget constrictions kept their work on the page, and it remained that way for at least a decade, as the project remained dormant since 2010 when Fox last held the rights. All that has changed, however, as Warner Bros. picked up the property and decided to continue the transitioning process. There's one catch, though: Joel and Ethan Coen are no longer involved.

As reported by THR, the revamped interest in the war story comes from Roye Lee under his Vertigo Entertainment banner. The producer recently helped bring The Lego Movie to the screen, and he's currently working on adaptations for Stephen King's It and The Stand for the studio, in addition to a new take on Dungeons & Dragons, a Minecraft movie, some Lego Movie spin-offs like The Billion Brick Race and The Lego Batman Movie, and an Adventure Time movie, just to a few of the many, many features with his name attached presently.

He plans to restart the creative process completely, with the Coens screenplay scrapped as they search for new writers and directors. John Middleton executive produces, with Jon Berg overseeing for the studio. While the renewed interest in To the White Sea is mildly surprising, the Coens lack of involvement this time around is less so, at least for those familiar with their recent interviews. Back when the duo promoted True Grit in 2010, they told the press they "didn't think anything would happen with it" and about how they came short to getting the money they needed, with star Brad Pitt doing it almost for free, but their vision didn't come into form. Such is the business. Their To the White Sea would've cost around $80 million, and with things just cooking on this movie, it's unclear how much producers would need to pony up to see this new version come to pass.

Dickey's novel follows an American gunner who must make his way through the frozen northern expanse of Japan when he parachutes into Tokyo from his burning plane. As the title suggests, he must reach the sea to find freedom. If the name of the author sounds familiar, it's probably because the late writer is also behind Deliverance. He penned the screenplay for the 1972 film based on his novel.

What they made of Dickey's writing with To the White Sea is left unseen, but their words continue to live on in the current cinematic scene. They helped scribe Steven Spielberg's Bridges of Spies, coming later this fall, and, of course, authored the script for their next directing vehicle, Hail, Caesar!, in theaters early next year.

Image courtesy of Houghton Mifflin