Ridley Scott clearly loves himself some sci-fi, as the Blade Runner director made a much-ballyhooed return to the genre 2 years ago with a prequel to his own Alien movie, Prometheus. Ever since, there’s been buzz that he had more sci-fi storytelling up his sleeve with a recently-announced Prometheus sequel, but now comes word that the director’s next will be The Martian, starring Matt Damon.
Though the project had been announced months ago, people were unsure of what it would actually see the light of day, since the 76 year old director has decided to jam pack his schedule. He’s got Christian Bale’s biblical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings currently in post-production, the aforementioned Prometheus 2 floating around, and a rumored follow-up to Blade Runner also said to be in some form of development. So it was unclear when The Martian would happen, but now according to producer Simon Kinberg, we know that it will be next on the prolific filmmaker’s to-do list.
Kinberg claims the Damon-starrer will film this fall. The film will be an adaptation of the Andy Weir novel by the same name, and will use what Kinberg describes as an “incredible script” written by Drew Goddard. Goddard was actually supposed to direct the film, but had to drop out due to his commitments to the Spider-Man spinoff, The Sinister Six.
Despite the film’s sci-fi trappings, it would appear to have more in common with Castaway than anything else. Judging on this description of the novel’s story, it almost feels like a male-driven take on last year’s Gravity:
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.
Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.
After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.
Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old “human error” are much more likely to kill him first.
But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?
Scott and Damon could be quite a dynamic pairing. This should be one to keep an eye out for.
SOURCE: IndieWire