UPDATED: Too many swords, not enough stones

Okay, what's going on? Variety is reporting today that Brian Singer, he of 1000 related projects (including but not limited to a new X-Men spinoff, the surely dead-dead-dead Superman sequel, and another Battlestar Galactica reboot), is going to be producing (and possibly directing...begin expected is-he-isn't-he speculation dancing) a remake of Excalibur. Now, the confusing part is the following: Aintitcool.com reported that Warren Ellis, he of awesome comic books and often confused for an Australian musician of the same name, was writing an Excalibur project for someone else entirely, noting from the man himself "on my desk the treatment is called untitled Arthurian project. On their desk, the project is called Excalibur." Is this because there was a competition to secure the rights that WB and Legendary Pictures won (the deal with Brian Singer), or is this a separate thing? Singer has a billion irons in the fire, including some project called Jack the Giant Killer, which is not based on the "Fables" comic book character and thus sounds really lame. But the prospect, however small, of having Singer direct an Excalibur remake written by Warren Ellis is too effing rad to not explore. The problem is that the Variety blurb says no writer is assigned yet, which doesn't matter because they're often wrong (okay, not often...please don't hurt me Variety). Oddly enough, Warren Ellis did not respond to my twitter request for more info, but I find the whole thing crazy...sorry if you don't. So, to recap this madness: (1) Singer is working on an Excalibur remake for WB, (2) it may or may not be involved with the Warren Ellis-written King Arthur project, and (3) I'm not sure anybody but me cares. Stay tuned! Or, you know, don't. Whatevs.

UPDATE: From the man Warren Ellis himself: "And no, it's not my Arthurian project Bryan Singer's talking about." There you have it. Competing Excalibur-related projects? I'm hoping to see Ellis's!