Ridley Scott was rumored to direct an adaptation of Joe Haldeman‘s 1974 novel The Forever War. Not much has been heard about it, but recently Haldeman wrote on his blog:
Scott has a script; last I heard, it was the fourth rewrite. I’ve talked to the writer — he has good credits, like “Unforgiven.”
Although he didn’t say the name, David Peoples is the sole credit on Unforgiven so the assumption can be made. Peoples also worked with Scott on Blade Runner as well as Twelve Monkeys and Soldier. I’d love to see Scott take on more sci-fi. He already has LOST‘s Damon Lindelof working with him on the Alien prequels. More sci-fi from Scott is always good. Check out the synopsis of The Forever War below.
The book tells the timeless story of war, in this case a conflict between humanity and the alien Taurans. Humans first bumped heads with the Taurans when we began using collapsars to travel the stars. Although the collapsars provide nearly instantaneous travel across vast distances, the relativistic speeds associated with the process means that time passes slower for those aboard ship. For William Mandella, a physics student drafted as a soldier, that means more than 27 years will have passed between his first encounter with the Taurans and his homecoming, though he himself will have aged only a year. When Mandella finds that he can’t adjust to Earth after being gone so long from home, he reenlists, only to find himself shuttled endlessly from battle to battle as the centuries pass.
What do you think about these two adaptations? Which one would you like to see first?