Merrick here...

Timur Bekmambetov (WANTED, NIGHT WATCH, DAY WATCH) is gearing up to make a MOBY DICK movie that isn't really a MOBY DICK movie, even though it sort of is.

Bekmambetov will direct from a screenplay by Bill Collage and Adam Cooper.

The writers revere Melville’s original text, but their graphic novel-style version will change the structure. Gone is the first-person narration by the young seaman Ishmael, who observes how Ahab’s obsession with killing the great white whale overwhelms his good judgment as captain.

This change will allow them to depict the whale’s decimation of other ships prior to its encounter with Ahab’s Pequod, and Ahab will be depicted more as a charismatic leader than a brooding obsessive.

"Our vision isn’t your grandfather’s ‘Moby Dick,’ " Cooper said. "This is an opportunity to take a timeless classic and capitalize on the advances in visual effects to tell what at its core is an action-adventure revenge story."

...says THIS ARTICLE in Variety.

With so many young sailors in the film, there must certainly be a way to work Shia into this, no? Bet there is...