'Starman' Remake In the Works With Director Shawn Levy

Shawn Levy is shooting for the stars.

Levy, the helmer behind the Night at the Museum movies as well as Real Steel, has signed on to direct and produce Starman, Columbia Pictures’ remake of the 1980s sci-fi romance that starred Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen. Michael Douglas, who produced the original, will produce with Levy.

Arash Amel, best known for writing the Nicole Kidman drama Grace of Monaco, is writing the script for the project.

Starman told of an alien who crash lands on Earth and assumes the form of a woman’s dead husband. He forces the woman to take him to a rendezvous site but on the road trip, a romance blossoms, all the while the government is in hot pursuit to capture him, dead or alive.

Bruce A Evans and Raynold Gideon, who adapted 1980s classic Stand By Me, wrote the original’s script. Horror king John Carpenter took a detour from his usual genre and directed the movie, which earned acclaim and a best actor nomination for Bridges.

The movie could prove to be a detour for Levy as well. Levy has done sci-fi before with the robot boxing movie Real Steel and dipped his toe in romantic comedy with Date Night, but this will be the filmmaker’s first dive into a character-based love story.

Dan Cohen of Levy’s 21 Laps banner and Robert Mitas are executive producing. Matt Milam and Adam North are overseeing for Columbia.

Amel co-wrote The Titan, the sci-fi indie now in production that stars Sam Worthington, Taylor Schilling and Tom Wilkinson. He also worked on MGM’s remake of WarGames and has Seducing Ingrid Bergman, about the love affair between the actress and war photographer Robert Capa, in development at YRF Entertainment.

Levy last directed 2014’s Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb as well as 2014’s all-star dramedy This Is Where I Leave You. He has been busy as a producer of late, with three movies in the can — New Line’s comedy Fist Fight and Fox Searchlight’s comedy Table 19, plus Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi drama Story of Your Life — and is in production on the James Franco-Bryan Cranston comedy Why Him?

Levy is repped by WME and Ziffren Brittenham. Amel is repped by CAA, Grandview Entertainment and Myman Greenspan.