Project: Mankind or After Man

Genre: Science Fiction.

Studio: DreamWorks SKG.
Production Company: Unknown.

Project Phase: Development Hell.

Who's In It: Unknown.
Who's Making It: Steven Spielberg (Director?); Thilo Newman (Producer?, Writer?); Ronald Shusett (Screenwriter?). Supposedly based on the Dougal Dixon's book After Man.

Premise:

(if based on Dixon's work)

A group of modern-day humans arrive one million years into the Earth's future. Man has vanished from the planet, but the descendants of once-familiar and benevolent species have continued to evolve and adapt - and in most cases, these new species are inherently hostile to interaction with human life. Now, the planet's only living representatives from a kinder, gentler epoch of history have just become the latest endangered species.

Release Date: 1998?

Comments: We've read the book the project is rumored to be based on. Davis paints a future Earth where there is no trace of Mankind, no record of his ever being there. No details are given, it just is. The plant and animal life evolve to meet the enviroment now that their greatest predator has vanished, and new hierarchies emerge. Bats are now the size of humans, roaming the plains at dusk where they envelop any halpless warm-blooded creature their giant wingspan can wrap around. Rabbits have evolved into fast-running beasts similar to gazelles. Davis' future history is colorful, imaginative and also thought provoking. A sequel/similar themed book, Man After Man, was also released.

DreamWorks had a project entitled After Man in development. It was listed in the upcoming theatrical release listings distributed to theater-owners in March, 1997. It was removed in the May, 1997 listings. A rumor that has been floating around the 'net in recent months concerns a secretive DreamWorks project called Project: Mankind, which may be based on Dixon's 1981 book After Man.

We are trying to confirm the status of After Man with DreamWorks and whether or not it is based on Dixon's material.

Rumors: Unknown.

Scoop Feedback:

May 13, 1997... After more than six months of speculation and only the thinnest of information avaliable, we've created a page for this rumored picture. Below is an overview of the gossip we've been gathering about this proposed project. Hopefully as a result of this page additional information will be heard...

Now what remains is to either connect the floating Project: Mankind information to DreamWorks After Man property. Instinct (and the past history with films in early stages of development) supports the theory that the P:M gossip may be rumor - the actors involved at such an early stage would tend to be a warning sign that this could be nothing more than wishful fan thinking or casting - but we can't totally disprove the rumor. As well, to complicate matters even more, Spielberg's name was attached to almost a half-dozen projects-in-development with DreamWorks SKG; whether the director goes on to helm these adventures later on, in the ever-changing, rotating realm of 'being attached to a film' is a wait-and-see game at best.



Have a Scoop/Information about a New Film Project? Copyrights and trademarks for the film and related entertainment properties mentioned herein are held by their respective owners and are used with permission or solely for the promotional purposes of said properties.
All other text and images copyright © 1995-98 Corona Productions.
Last updated: Sunday, 12-Jul-1998 17:59:46 PDT.
webmaster@corona.bc.ca