by Blair Marnell

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer and screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski have signed on with Disney for a film adaptation of 2K Games' real-time strategy title “Shattered Union.” According to Variety, Mike Stenson and Chad Oman of Jerry Bruckheimer Films will also come onboard as executive producers. The duo is also attached to the upcoming film adaptations of "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" and “The Sorcerer's Apprentice.”

Originally released in 2005, “Shattered Union” is a turn-based tactics game that chronicles the second American Civil War following the nuclear destruction of Washington D.C. and the assassination of the President of the United States along with most of Congress. In the aftermath, several states secede and wage war against each other. Read more...

When "Quantum of Solace" director Marc Forster was chosen to helm the adaptation of Max Brooks' "World War Z" zombie-stravaganza, we noted that it was a surprising pairing -- but with noted television, movie and comics author J. Michael Straczynski already penning the screenplay and Brad Pitt's Plan B producing, the project was certainly developing some heat. Now, with "Solace" in its fifth impressive week at the box office, MTV News spoke to Straczynski about the addition of Forster to the already buzzworthy project and how he plans to adapt Brooks' novel.

"We talk about it as a thriller, the closest comparison being 'The Bourne Identity,'" explained Straczynski, who's also penning a "Forbidden Planet" revisiting. "Most zombie movies to this point have been small, focusing on a few people in a house. And this has got real scare. You’re in India with hundreds of boats trying to get out of there with a tidal wave of zombies. The scale of what we’re doing here is phenomenal." Read more...

Meet J. Michael Straczynski. 54-years-old. Veteran writer of everything from “Babylon 5” to that “He-Man” cartoon in the 80s (I know, I got excited when I saw that on his resume too.) And overnight success story?

Admittedly it’s more than a little odd for publications like Variety to call Straczynski -- a scribe with an IMDB listing as long as they come -- as one of their ten screenwriters to watch. But that’s just what his screenplay for the new Clint Eastwood film, “Changeling,” has provoked.

“It’s proof that the Hollywood fairytale still exists,” Straczynski told MTV News this week. And listening to him tell the story of how the film came to be makes it hard to argue. “Changeling,” tells the true story of Christine Collins, a single mother in Los Angeles in the 1920s who had her abducted child returned to her by the LAPD only to find that it was not her son at all. Read more...

One of the most hotly anticipated zombie (or is that post-zombie?) books finally has a director! According to Variety, the adaptation of Max Brooks' insanely popular "World War Z" has snagged Bond helmer Marc Forster for the job. It's like they didn't think it was buzzworthy enough, what with J. Michael Straczynski writing the script, and Brad Pitt's Plan B producing.

If you haven't read the book, "World War Z" is a seriously detailed, often creepy account of the zombie apocalypse that wiped out humanity in the 2010s. Compiled by a U.N. Postwar Commission researcher, its a first-person retelling of the war that wiped out every country on the map. Forster was drawn to the project for its journalistic style. "The genre always fascinated me, and when they pitched it to me, it reminded me of the paranoid conspiracy films of the '70s like 'All the President's Men.'" Read more...

After generating some major mainstream buzz with "Changeling," it looks like J. Michael Straczynski is making a big (and possibly risky) return to the science-fiction genre. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he's been hired by Warner Bros to pen their remake of the sci-fi classic, "The Forbidden Planet."

For those who haven't seen it, "Planet" is the futuristic tale of an expedition sent from Earth to the planet Altair IV to check up on a scientific colony set up 20 years earlier. Only one member is left -- Dr. Morbius, who lives with his daughter and Robby the Robot, the rest having been wiped out by a mysterious force. Morbius reveals he's boosted his intellect with the technology left behind by Altair's extinct race -- but unsurprisingly, using it produces a few nightmares, too. Read more...

FROM SPLASH PAGE: With the internet absolutely a’blaze over the recent announcement that Kenneth Branagh could possibly be the director on Marvel’s upcoming “Thor” film, Splash Page decided to get current “Thor” comics writer J. Michael Straczynski’s take on the news.

“Honestly, I can’t imagine anyone better suited to this,” said Straczynski, who is more widely known as the creator of “Babylon 5” and more recently, the screenwriter of the upcoming Clint Eastwood-directed Oscar contender “Changeling.” "'Thor,' at his best, has always had a classical bent to the character in terms of his history, the way he speaks, and the often Shakespearean intrigues and dramas that surround him." Read More...

- The rich get richer, eh Robin? Sienna Miller to play Maid Marian in Ridley Scott’s “Nottingham.” (BBC)

- Screenwriter J Michael Straczynski talks about his abandoned script for “Silver Surfer.” (AMC)

- Bill Hader and “Superbad” director Greg Mottola working on vigilante parody. (/film)

- Trailer for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” finally viewable in glorious quicktime. (Apple)

- Aaron Yoo to date Lindsay Lohan in “Labor Pains.” (THR)