It seems that yet another major studio has shied away from the hot Weinstein Company project Apollo 18, with Warner Bros. dropping their thriller Dark Moon. However, Heat Vision Blog has reported that Dark Castle is now in negotiations to pick the movie up, out of turnaround.

We first reported on Dark Moon last month, which The Fourth Kind director Olatunde Osunsanmi was signed onto write and direct for Warner Bros. and producer Akiva Goldsman. However, when the news of Timur Bekmambetov's Apollo 18 hit last weekend, Warner Bros. decided to put Dark Moon into turnaround, due to the similar themes of both projects. Dark Castle producers Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman, who were fans of Olatunde Osunsanmi's script, brought the project to Dark Castle head Joel Silver who approved the pick-up.

Negotiations are still ongoing, but it seems that Dark Castle will now be financing Dark Moon with Akiva Goldsman and his Weed Road production company still on board. Ironically, the movie will be distributed by Warner Bros. through their overall deal with Dark Castle.

Dark Moon, like Apollo 18, relies on the concept that NASA manned moon missions actually did not stop after Apollo 17. The movie centers on a covert mission to the moon to explore the previously-classified findings of the shady missions. Dark Moon will start shooting in the winter with a release date set for later in the year.

We also reported just yesterday that Roland Emmerich's found footage moon movie The Zone has been shut down. Although no official reason was given, it was believed that the Apollo 18 announcement was a factor in the decision. Apollo 18 also centers on found footage from an Apollo mission thought to have been canceled, although producer Timur Bekmambetov claims he has discovered actual footage from the Apollo 18 mission.