The all-new Island Of Dr. Moreau
Writer Zack Stentz reveals his updated Tv-show take on the H.G. Wells sci-fi classic
THE LAST TIME someone adapted H.G. Wells’ 1896 sci-fi horror story The Island Of Dr. Moreau, about a scientist playing God and creating human monsters via vivisection, it resulted in the 1996 Marlon Brando/val Kilmer-starring turkey-monster, one of the most disastrous shoots ever. But that hasn’t deterred writer Zack Stentz, who is currently developing Moreau, a TV show based on the novel.
“The problem with that movie wasn’t anything inherently unadaptable about the material,” Stentz points out. “There had been two successful film versions beforehand. That one went off the rails because Richard Stanley was this indie director in over his head with all of these crazy personalities. But that movie ain’t boring. Which points to how compelling the material is.”
Stentz has previously dealt with mutants (X-men: First Class) and monster-populated islands (Jurassic Park: Camp Cretaceous), so it’s unsurprising to learn he’s loved the book since childhood. And the time couldn’t be more ripe for a 21st-century remix, he thinks.
Firmly taking the beast-folk-creating doctor’s perspective, the show will “tell this story as essentially an Oppenheimer story for the age of genetic engineering,” Stentz says.
“I was really intrigued by the idea of having, as the audience point of view, a character who wants to unlock the genome to help humanity and ends up creating monsters.”
Interestingly, Stentz and co-creator Eric Bromberg have switched Moreau’s gender. Partly as a tribute to the prominence of female scientists in the genetic revolution (“Just a few weeks ago, it was two women who won the Nobel Prize for developing the CRISPR technology”), but also, says Stentz, because “we haven’t had a lot of brilliant female anti-heroes as anchors for television, when we’ve had very many Tony Sopranos and Walter Whites.”
It’s still early days for Moreau
— the show has a production company on board, but no network yet — but already, he says, “We’ve had A-list directors calling and saying, ‘Can
I direct the pilot?’ — just because the idea of turning Dr. Moreau into a show is that compelling.” Seems this new-look Island is going to be a reassuringly crowded place.