JJ Abrams and his company Bad Robot are producing a new Second World War movie for Paramount Pictures – but from the sounds of things, we shouldn’t expect another ‘Saving Private Ryan.’

Co-conceived by Abrams, the project is entitled ‘Overlord,’ and has recently acquired Julius Avery (‘Son of a Gun’) as director, and the brief synopsis published by Variety suggests we may be looking at the first Nazi zombie movie to come out of a major US studio.

Variety’s Justin Kroll tells us that ‘Overlord’ follows “two paratroopers who are caught behind enemy lines after their plane crashes on a mission to destroy a German Radio Tower in a small town outside of Normandy during the D-Day invasion.

“After reaching their target, the two paratroopers come to realize that besides fighting off Nazi soldiers, they also must combat against supernatural forces that are a result of a secret Nazi experiment.”

Okay, so ‘supernatural forces’ doesn’t necessarily mean zombies – but it’s easy to envisage this being the supernatural threat in question, and if so ‘Overlord’ will follow in a proud tradition.

The Nazi zombies of 2009’s ‘Dead Snow’ (credit: Entertainment One) More

While early instances of the Nazi zombie movie date back many years – 1977’s ‘Shock Waves,’ 1980’s ‘Zombie Lake,’ 1981’s ‘Oasis of the Zombies’ – the subgenre has really flourished in recent years with the ‘Dead Snow’ and ‘Outpost’ movies, ‘Frankenstein’s Army,’ and a slew of low budget efforts such as ‘Army of the Dead,’ ‘The 4th Reich’ and ‘Nazi Zombie Death Tales.’

Free from zombies but even more out there was 2012’s ‘Iron Sky,’ a satirical sci-fi which featured space age Nazis hiding out on the dark side of the moon before attacking the earth. And of course, the ‘Indiana Jones’ and ‘Hellboy’ movies tapped into Hitler’s oft-discussed interest in the occult.

Given the current political climate, any new movie that deals with Nazism is bound to be looked at in a slightly different light, although it’s worth noting that ‘Overlord’ has been some time in the works, Abrams and co-writer Billy Ray sold the script to Paramount a decade ago (‘The Revenant’ screenwriter Mark L Smith has reportedly done rewrites since).

No word yet on production dates, release dates or casting, but the filmmakers are said to have already begun “meeting with talent to play the two soldiers.”

While JJ Abrams has yet to take on another directorial job after 2015’s mega-blockbuster ‘Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens,’ he’s keeping very busy as a producer, with projects including TV’s ‘Westworld,’ the upcoming ‘Mission: Impossible 6’ and ‘Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi,’ and ‘God Particle,’ said to be a third film in the ‘Cloverfield’ series.

Meanwhile, director Julius Avery is also lined up to helm ‘The King of LA’ for producer Ridley Scott.

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