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Some details have been unearthed regarding director Alex Proyas’ (Knowing) adaptation of the 17th century epic poem Paradise Lost.

We learned back in May that Bradley Cooper was attached to star, and that the film would include “aerial warfare,” but other than that not much was known about the ambitious undertaking.

Well now it looks like the massive production will take place in Sydney, spanning 20 weeks of pre-production, eight weeks of principal photography, and 72 weeks of post-production, with the director utilizing motion capture to make the film.

Motion capture seems the right way to go in order to justly portray the mythological grandeur of Milton’s story that centers on an epic war between archangels Lucifer and Michael, though the report doesn’t specify if the entire film will be motion capture (like The Polar Express) or if only certain elements/characters will be photographed with the technology (like The Lord of the Rings and King Kong).

While Proyas has arguably yet to live up to the promise he showed with 1998’s Dark City, if done right Paradise Lost could be a wildly entertaining film. Cooper hasn’t really had a chance to shine as a dramatic actor, so if Proyas focuses as much attention on the character aspects of the Lucifer/Michael showdown as he does on the visual effects and stunts, the actor could turn in some fine work here.

Nevertheless, production is expected to get underway fairly soon given the amount of post-production work that needs to be done. We’ll know more at this week’s Comic-Con when Proyas and Cooper talk about the film for the Legendary Pictures panel.

The studio is eying a late 2013 release.