Add Paradise Lost to the list of big-budget endeavors that won't be getting made any time soon due to a cost-conscious aversion to event movies that aren't sure things in these tough economic times.  The adaptation of John Milton's 345 year-old poem has was scheduled to begin production in Australia last month, but in December, Legendary Pictures put the project on hold in order to bring the budget down to a more palatable figure.  It seems that didn't work out, as the film, which was to star Bradley Cooper as Lucifer and tell the story of his hubris and fall from grace, has now been abandoned outright.

In the 17th Century, John Milton spent literally years composing one of the greatest English poems ever written, laboring well into his own blindness to create a properly grandiose epic retelling of Satan's war with God and fall from grace, as well as the creation of the human race.  So it was probably hubris to expect that Paradise Lost, a 3D action movie inspired by Milton's text, would make it to theaters without a hitch.  Under the direction of Alex Proyas, the film was set to begin production next month in Australia, but Legendary Pictures has temporarily postponed the start date in an attempt to get an escalating budget under control.

Even John Milton, who dictated one of the finest works of poetry ever composed in the English language after literally years of serious work, would probably agree that Casey Affleck knocked it out of the park in his Oscar nominated leading turn in Gone Baby Gone, as directed by his older sibling Ben Affleck.  So assuming he's still alive almost 350 years after the poem's publication, Milton's probably pretty stoked that Affleck is in negotiations to play an angel loyal to god in Paradise Lost, a 3D action epic based on his truly classic work.  Not only that, but the gorgeous Camilla Belle is also likely to join the project as a certain apple-loving young lady who causes humanity's expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

Seventeenth Century poet John Milton aspired to write an epic poem, in English, which would rival the likes of the Aeneid and Odyssey.  To do this, he meticulously created a unique, humbling syntax to approximate reading the language of angels and god, dictating his poem well after he himself was completely blind.  Of course, what he probably had in mind was that, four hundred years down the line, someone would make a 3D action movie out of it.  So it is that Alex Proyas is developing Paradise Lost, and now Djimon Hounsou has joined a cast that so far includes Bradley Cooper and Benjamin Walker.

Bradley Cooper is all set to play Lucifer in Paradise Lost, an effects-filled blockbuster based on one of the finest epic poems ever written in the English language.  Since the prideful fallen angel is, at best, an anti-hero, though, he'll be butting heads with the Archangel Michael, a reciprocal other who is more obedient to God the Creator and less gung-ho on the whole hubris thing.  Deadline reports that Benjamin Walker, who just finished filming his role as the titular 16th President/supernatural avenger in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, is in talks to play Michael.  Not only that, but Mike Fleming managed to get plenty of new insight from Paradise Lost director Alex Proyas.

In order to create Paradise Lost, arguably one of the finest achievements in English literature of all time, John Milton spent years composing his epic poem, tirelessly striving to create a syntactic style that read like the language of god and his angels.  Dictating well into his old age and blindness, Milton's resulting poem, first published in 1667, accomplished his ambitious goal and created a text of apparently limitless depth.  For the first time, a film adaptation is looking to capture the epic story of angelic war, the creation of man, and anti-hero Lucifer's hubris and fall to Hell.

Relativity Media has announced that Juan Carlos Fresnadillo is the choice to direct a re-imagining of The Crow, the 1994 gothic actioner starring Brandon Lee.  Fresnadillo helmed the 2007 sequel 28 Weeks Later, and will give the new adaptation of James O. Barr's comic book a tone and style very different from the version directed by Alex Proyas.  The film, about a man who returns from the dead with supernatural powers and sets out to avenge the murders of himself and his beloved wife, is scheduled to begin production this fall.

Just two weeks ago Daniel H. Wilson sold the rights to his novel AMP to Doubleday. Summit grabbed the film rights yesterday, and (in an extremely quick turnaround) have already attached Alex Proyas (who handled the beautiful Dark City) to produce and direct the picture.

According to Wilson the book will not be completed until 2012, but that hasn’t stopped Hollywood from getting the ball rolling early. After Steven Spielberg signed on to direct Wilson’s Robopocalypse, the author is suddenly in extremely high demand.

Alex Proyas (The Crow, I, Robot, Dark City) has signed on to direct an adaptation of Paradise Lost, based on the classic 17th-century poem by John Milton. Legendary Pictures' (The Dark Knight, Watchmen) Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni will produce the possibly 3D project with Vince Newman.  The project is expected to fall under Legendary's co-production and co-financing  agreement with Warner Bros., which will distribute the film worldwide.