It’s been a while since there has been any movement regarding Ridley Scott’s attempt to bring Joe Haldeman’s sci-fi novel, ‘The Forever War,’ to the big screen, but it looks like the project has received a big boost. It’s being reported that D.W. Harper has now come on board to scribe a rewrite.

Harper wrote the screenplays for both ‘Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters’ (starring Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton and Framke Janssen) and ‘All You Need is Kill’ (which is currently filming in London with Tom Cruise). He’s also turned in a script for the film adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s ‘Foundation’ which is to be directed by Roland Emmerich and was putting on the final touches for Gareth Edwards’ next film, ‘Forever,’ about  “a young human child and a robot who travel across the galaxy in search of mankind’s origin in a world void of humanity and filled with robots.” Obviously this scribe has a lot to contribute to the genre and it’s easy to see why Scott picked him to pen ‘The Forever War.”

‘The Forever War’ is a project that Scott has been wanting to make since the book was published in 1974. It wasn’t until 2008 that he was able to obtain the rights and begin developing the film. The book centers on Private William Mandella who is drafted to fight an intergalactic battle, but due to that pesky thing called time displacement and time travel, his short time fighting in the war is actually centuries in human Earth time. When he returns to his home planet, the Earth has changed to the point it is almost unrecognizable.

Scott has described the novel as a “ science-fiction epic, a bit of ‘The Odyssey’ by way of ‘Blade Runner,’ built on a brilliant, disorienting premise.”  The book, which served as an allegory of Halderman’s time as a soldier in the Vietnam war, has won both the Nebula and Hugo Awards.

While the news that this project has a new writter is promising, it still may be some time before Scott can start production as he is also currently working on a sequel to his classic sci-fi film ‘Blade Runner’ and ‘Prometheus.’ It’s nice to know, though, that Scott doesn’t not plan taking another long hiatus from the sci-fi genre like he did before he took on ‘Prometheus.’

As with all things in developemnt, once more news about the progress of ‘The Forever War’ is released, we’ll make sure to let you know.

 

Source: Deadline