Dreamworks has managed to persuade Tim Burton to direct the big screen adaptation of Matt Wilson’s Monsterpocalypse Collectible Miniatures Game published by Privateer Press.  Burton, whose 3-D version of Alice in Wonderland has just become the fifth highest grossing film of all time, is a hot commodity in Hollywood today.  With Dreamworks looking at Monsterpocalypse as a summer movie tentpole, it appears likely that the film, which Disney will distribute, will be produced in 3D.

Dreamworks’ strategy of hiring frequent Burton collaborator John August to write the screenplay for the Monsterpocalypse movie appears to have succeeded in snaring exactly the director the studio wanted from the beginning (see “Burton Could Helm Monsterpocalypse Movie”).  Variety is now reporting that Burton is both developing and directing the movie based on the kaiju-inspired game in which giant monsters battle it out in a variety of cityscapes.

No word yet on when the Burton-helmed Monsterpocalypse movie will begin production.  Up next for the stylish “Goth Meister” is an adaptation of the vampire soap Dark Shadows starring Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins (see “Jane Austen Zombie Scribe Writing Dark Shadows”).