Marti Noxon

Exclusive: Screenwriter Marti Noxon on THE DEFENDERS; Says John Hamburg is Now

Involved and it’s a Sci-Fi Comedy

About a year ago we first covered a project called The Defenders. The project was set up by Masi Oka (Heroes) at DreamWorks where he landed Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Star Trek, Transformers) as producers with D.J. Caruso possibly directing. The story (from our original article):

“Centers on a group of mostly teenagers from around the world who are involved in a multiplayer video game, each unaware of who they really are behind the cover of their consoles and avatars. They are forced to come together for a real adventure, becoming inadvertent heroes in the process.”

Since posting the story, we haven’t had any updates. Until today. That’s because an hour ago I got to speak with screenwriter Marti Noxon (I Am Number Four, Fright Night) and towards the end of the interview she revealed she’s writing the script. The interesting news is she mentioned John Hamburg (writer/director of I Love You, Man) is also involved and she called it a sci-fi comedy. More after the jump:

While it’s not clear is Hamburg’s involvement means D.J. Caruso is out of the picture, I think it does. Also, when you look over the synopsis and hear Noxon calling the film a sci-fi comedy, you can’t help but think of The Goonies in terms of tone. In addition, Steven Spielberg produced Goonies and the project is set up at DreamWorks….so it’s not exactly a stretch to reach that conclusion.

Anyway, here’s what Noxon said about The Defenders and another project she’s doing called Bad Baby – which she said is in the tradition of John Hughes and Home Alone. Look for my full interview later today or tomorrow where she talks about I Am Number Four, Fright Night, Comic-Con and a lot more.