Ridley Scott's THE FOREVER WAR Back To The Front Lines!

Yes! Ridley Scott is apparently still pushing forward with his adaptation of Joe Haldeman's THE FOREVER WAR and has inked Dante (D.W.) Harper (ALL YOU NEED IS KILL, HANSEL AND GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS) to adapt it for him.

No word on whether Harper was the original person that Scott hired to adapt the book or not. We knew someone was working on just that way back in 2009 (obviously before his 3D PROMETHEUS) when he said:

"I'm filming a book by Joe Haldeman called Forever War. I've got a good writer doing it. I've seen some of James Cameron's work, and I've got to go 3D. It's going to be phenomenal."

Here's the book's description from Amazon:
The Earth's leaders have drawn a line in the interstellar sand--despite the fact that the fierce alien enemy they would oppose is inscrutable, unconquerable, and very far away. A reluctant conscript drafted into an elite Military unit, Private William Mandella has been propelled through space and time to fight in the distant thousand-year conflict; to perform his duties and do whatever it takes to survive the ordeal and return home. But "home" may be even more terrifying than battle, because, thanks to the time dilation caused by space travel, Mandella is aging months while the Earth he left behind is aging centuries...

I'm just glad that this project hasn't gotten back-burnered with all of Scott's other projects on the go, like THE COUNSELOR, PROMETHEUS 2 and BLADE RUNNER 2. I have to underscore that the potential of this project is immense and easily could fall in line with Scott's other sci-fi classics.

I'm not kidding. This could be his finest hour in science fiction; the story is that good. More when we get it! Thanks for the heads up Adam...

Source: Deadline

GRAVITY Attracts Clooney!

Yes! Finally we have some rather solid casting news for the long awaited and much anticipated Alfonso Cuaron science fiction thriller GRAVITY.

George Clooney has reportedly signed (via THR) on as the important first act character that survives an outer space tragedy along with the major star of the film, Sandra Bullock. It seems Bullock will carry the second and third acts by herself.

Warner Bros is looking to start production in the spring.

Here is the supposed storyline (via Scriptshadow - SPOILER ALERT): The script follows Ryan Stone, an engineer whose career path unexpectedly puts her on a space shuttle, doing repairs. (In a more recent draft, she’s working on repairing the Hubble.) She’s paired with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski. But things go very wrong. The Russians just blew up something that “creates a chain reaction of spraying debris that hits multiple satellites, which also end up exploding, and all of a sudden thousands of pieces of debris are heading straight towards the space shuttle.” Cutting forward a bit, that debris destroys the shuttle and eventually leaves Ryan alone, trying to make her way to the International Space Station and rescue.

Everything that can go wrong does go wrong as the movie becomes a series of near death experiences. Ryan must jump from point to point – whether it be to a vessel, a station, or an oxygen tank – and survive long enough to make the journey to the next point after that (and so on). Each destination is accompanied by dangerous debris, dropping oxygen, and the strong chance that whatever she’s trying to get to might not be there. Think Apollo 13, but with the odds stacked 1 million times higher against you, if that’s possible.

GRAVITY is rumored to have a MASSIVE opening scene that has Cuaron capturing a 20 minute shot! Amazing if this turns out to be true. Remember watching CHILDREN OF MEN and that scene where Clive Owen is searching for the baby and mother in that ravaged apartment building? ONE shot.

Single shot scenes really bring you into the action! Combine that with immersive 3D in space and you have a sure winner. Can't wait! Huge anticipation for this movie guys!!

FLASH GORDON Going 3D!

Jim here. Am I surprised anymore at the number of sci-fi and horror movies that are going S3D? Nope. It is really more about what projects get green lit at all and which ones don't.

Breck Eisner (THE CRAZIES), director just spilled the beans to Collider that FLASH GORDON will be in 3D. Native 3D? Well judging by Eisner's choice of words I would say no: "Yes, this will definitely be a 3D movie. Like I said, when it’s the right kind of movie, you want to use the right kind of technology, so we intend to shoot it for 3D."

"...shoot it FOR 3D." Sounds like a 2D shoot that is optimized for a post production conversion to 3D. This is not confirmed, but certainly rings about right.

Here is what Eisner had to say about the movie itself: "Flash Gordon is a project I’ve been pursuing for years. It’s a true passion of mine. Sci-fi is a real passion of mine. And I finally got it set up at Sony and we hired the two writers, [Matt] Sazama and [Burk] Sharpless. I’ve been breaking story with them since I finished post on The Crazies, for the last two months or so. We finished that process; we’re now putting pen to paper, or keys to keyboard, and writing the script. We should have that in a month or two. And I think we have an awesome story. It’s not in any way connected to the camp of the ’80’s and it’s not connected to the serials of the ’50’s. It’s very much looking back to the original Alex Raymond strips; it’s imagining that Alex Raymond were to draw the strips today instead of in the ’30’s and ’40s and what would they be? It’ll be action and adventure; it’ll be aggressive and dynamic and intense with a really strong lead character who goes on an interesting personal journey over the course of the movie."

Sounds like he has got a good grip on what needs to be done with FLASH GORDON to make it a success. I know the 1980's version left a lot to be desired. We will keep our ear to the ground on this one and watch for telltale signs of his direction in THE CRAZIES. Early of course, but I think FG could turn out to be well worth watching.

Check out the remainder of the interview at Collider.

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I am going to talk a bit more about the movie Outlander coming up soon - you know the Jim Caviezel, Ron Perlman, John Hurt movie with yours truly in it! Some more behind the scenes fodder. Stay tuned! Outlander (The Weinstein Company) is coming out later this year...