'Lost' Director Jack Bender Is Ready For 'Devolution' Based On An Idea From 'World War Z' Author Max Brooks

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by Benjamin Wright
June 27, 2012 3:18 PM
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While his name may not be instantly recognizable just yet, filmmaker Jack Bender has been linked to quite a number of high-profile projects since the end of the beloved series “Lost,” a show he served as both a producer and frequent director on. Since then, he’s taken the executive producer position on frequent collaborator J.J. Abram’s “Alcatraz,” and he piqued our interest when we heard he’d be directing a Syfy time-travel drama pilot called "Rewind" with David Cronenberg featuring in a guest role, but he’s still probably best known for jumping ship on Paramount’s major Jack Ryan reboot with Chris Pine set to take over the popular Tom Clancy-created character (Kenneth Branagh has since taken the reins).

Well it looks like he’s not exactly reeling from that loss, as THR now has word that is Bender is now working on a project called “Devolution,” a thriller he is developing to direct for Legendary (“The Dark Knight Rises,” “Man of Steel” -- basically every blockbuster Warner Bros. does). Plot details are being held tightly under wraps – which you should have guessed by the involvement of a “Lost” alum – but it does come from an original idea courtesy of “World War Z” author Max Brooks. Scribe David Leslie Johnson, who has penned “Wrath of the Titans” and a couple of episodes of the hit AMC series “The Walking Dead,” is on scripting duties for this. So, yeah, we’re guessing he’s not too bummed about leaving the Jack Ryan movie that nobody really wants.

The project will most likely be firmly in Bender’s comfort zone of genres like sci-fi and horror, and the involvement of Max Brooks and David Leslie Johnson also suggests the same. No word yet on a production start date as this is still in the very early stages, but it’s interesting to see how far Bender has come from the days of television movies and directing “Child’s Play 3.”

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