Universal Pictures are in the final stages of negotiating to purchase new film Arabian Knights .
Flight Plan producers Brian Grazer and Erica Huggins are the minds behind the project, with the film’s story conceived by Kyle Ward.
Knights is being planned as a revisionist take on the Middle Eastern folk tales that form the traditional Arabian Nights collection of stories - among them the famous one about the genie in the lamp.
Variety report that Knights will be “radically different” from the Arabian Nights action film starring Liam Hemsworth and Anthony Hopkins.
If Universal buy into Knights , they’ll be buying into a sizeable property, with current rights holders Blacklight Transmedia interested in developing a graphic novel, video game and book series to tie in with the movie.
With sandy epics all the rage at the moment, it's not hard to see why Universal are interested in the property. But with all the sandy epics released so far failing to impress, this could be one movie fad they'd do well to avoid.
