Merrick here...

Robert Zemeckis will produce a Gil Kenan directed adaptation of Eoin Colfe's book AIRMAN (available HERE).

Based on a book by Eoin Colfer, story centers on Connor, a boy who lives on an island off the coast of Ireland, where his father is the king's bodyguard. When the king is murdered, Conor is blamed for the crime and thrown into prison where he passes the solitary months designing a flying machine that he will use to save his family.

...says Variety HERE.

The project will be scripted by Ann Peacock (the first NARNIA movie, NIGHTS IN RODANTHE) and will be a motion capture extravaganza a-la Zemeckis' BEOWULF (as well as his forthcoming takes on A CHRISTMAS CAROL and YELLOW SUBMARINE).

The AIRMAN movie is gonna cost $150 million - which I hear is actually a little less than some of the other motion capture stuff we've already seen (if the figures I heard were accurately presented). Maybe I'm being incredibly naive, but...if these damn pseudo-cartoons are costing as much as, if not more than, live-action fare...where's the upside to this technology? Am I missing something?

This said, I'm an enormous fan of MONSTER HOUSE - which Kenan directed - so more power to him. I never saw CITY OF EMBER, his MH follow-up. Was it OK?