Fox 2000 has acquired rights to Joe Haldeman’s 1974 novel “The Forever War,” and Ridley Scott is planning to make it into his first science fiction film since he delivered back-to-back classics with “Blade Runner” and “Alien.”
Variety reports that Scott had intended to follow those sci-fi films with “War,” but rights complications delayed his plans for more than two decades.
“I first pursued ‘Forever War’ 25 years ago, and the book has only grown more timely and relevant since,” Scott told Daily Variety. “It’s a science-fiction epic, a bit of ‘The Odyssey’ by way of ‘Blade Runner,’ built upon a brilliant, disorienting premise.”
In Joe Haldeman’s novel, a soldier who battles an enemy in deep space for only a few months returns home to a planet he doesn’t recognize some 20 years later.
“The Forever War” rights were acquired right after publication by f/x titan Richard Edlund, who spent $400,000 of his own money and intended to make the book his directorial debut. The book became an iconic sci-fi title but Edlund, who won two Oscars — including one for visual effects on “Raiders of the Lost Ark” — never got “The Forever War” off the ground. After a Sci Fi Channel miniseries stalled, Scott became interested again and Edlund was ready to make a deal. It took six months to secure all the rights.
Ridley Scott next plans to direct “Nottingham,” starring Russell Crowe. He has several other projects percolating that include the thriller “Child 44,” for which Richard Price just penned a script, and “Gucci,” about the internecine squabbles within the fashion family that led to the murder of Maurizio Gucci.
Source: Variety
