Hey folks, Harry here... Most of you know that I'm producing JOHN CARTER OF MARS with Alphaville and Paramount - but pretty much the entire time that I've been working with Jim Jacks and Sean Daniels on JOHN CARTER, they've also been working on a project that pretty much every boy on planet earth that has never grown up has been in love with... RIPLEY'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT! Well, today they finally announced through the trades (Hollywood Reporter & Variety) that Tim Burton and Jim Carrey are in negotiations to turn the script that Larry Karaszewski and Scott Alexander have written into a huge big budget film. Not only that, but Richard Zanuck has joined the team to help make this tremendous adaptation a reality. In addition you have Ken Atchity producing, and his partner Chi-Li Wong is executive producing. They're all loaded up with producing talent.

I've read the Karazewski and Alexander script and enjoyed it immensely. It takes place back when Ripley was literally the "most interesting man in the world" prior to World War II - when he lived upon his amazing estate on BION ISLAND ("Believe It Or Not Island") and it is really a rollicking period adventure. Some may look at it as a bit Indiana Jones - and definitely there is a relation to that wild spirit of adventure that Indiana Jones had, but where Indiana was underfinanced and usually ill-prepared for encounters - Ripley mounts amazing expeditions with a more varied assortment of adventurous mates.

Not only that - but his financial battles with William Randolph Hearst, his tormenting of the United States Postal Service and the love he had for the children of the world all kinda shine through. It's quirkier than the Indiana Jones films have been, but don't be mistaken - it's every bit as epic, in its own way.

The script bristles with invention and detail - and I've no doubt that Tim Burton is going to have a blast with all the various eccentricities of this lead character - from the fact that he was an illustrator of the strange and unbelievable to the collector of oddities and oddly beautiful. I can't wait to see this thing come to life!