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Ridley Scott is now developing a movie based on Joe Haldeman's 1974 science fiction novel The Forever War. Scott, who directed two modern day classics for the sci-fi genre (1979's Alien and 1982's Blade Runner), has wanted to make a movie from the book for 25 years but the rights were held by special effects master Richard Edlund (Ghostbusters, Raiders of the Lost Ark). Edlund tried for decades to develop the film into his first picture as director but couldn't move the project into the greenlight. After the Sci-Fi Channel tried to work out a deal with Edlund to develop the property for the cable channel, Scott and Fox 2000 then began negotiating for the rights. The process took six months.

"I first pursued Forever War 25 years ago, and the book has only grown more timely and relevant since, Scott said to Variety. "It's a science-fiction epic, a bit of The Odyssey by way of Blade Runner, build upon a brilliant, disorienting premise."

The central character in the book is William Mandella, a young university student that is drafted by the world government to fight an alien race called the Taurans. The soldiers that are shipped out from Earth travel thousands of light years in a blink of an eye but because of the effects of time diliation from travelling at superluminal velocities 20 years slip by for the world Mandella leaves behind. When he returns home after spending only a few months at the frontline of the war, a generation has passed by and Mandella has a profound case of culture shock as he witnesses the major ways that society has changed to adapt to the effects of long-term warfare. As the hero continues to be shipped out to fight across the galaxy he becomes increasingly removed from the culture that he was once part of.

Fox 2000 bought the rights for Ridley's Scott Free Productions to develop. The hunt is on to find a writer to adapt the novel into screenplay form.

- Variety. Comment on this Scoop (0)