The Wrap is reporting that Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures have reached a deal with screenwriter Brian Helgeland to pen the script for a movie to be called Here There Be Monsters. The studios have also entered into negotiations with Academy Award–winning director Robert Zemeckis to make the movie for them.

The movie will follow along the same lines as the popular alternate history monster movie sub–sub–genre where real times, places, and historical figures have monsters and all kinds of beasties thrown into the mix.

Here There Be Monsters revolves around real–life Revolutionary War naval hero, John Paul Jones, only in this telling of his story, some big, scary sea monsters will be involved. Why make boring historically accurate Oscar bait movies when you can add freakin’ sea monsters? A question worth pondering, indeed.

If Zemeckis does in fact direct the movie, it would be one of a few live–action projects he’s been setting up after a string of performance capture animated features including The Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol. Things ended badly, however, with Mars Needs Moms, which Zemeckis only produced. The movie cost Disney $150 million to make, but, in one of the worst flops in history, only made back $40 million. His live–action resume is much more impressive with titles like the Back to the Future trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Forrest Gump on it.

Some of the movies that Helgeland has previously written include A Knight’s Tale, Mystic River, which got him an Oscar nomination, and L.A. Confidential, which won him an Oscar.