Ridley Scott to return to his SciFi Roots

The SciFi Wire reports today that Fox2000 has acquired the rights to Joe Haldeman's 1974 science fiction novel, "The Forever War". This will be Scott's first science fiction film since he directed "Blade Runner" and "Alien".

This folks, is news that makes my day!

"The Forever War" has long been one of my top 10 novels. This is one of those books that I tend to drag out and re-read at least once a year. It's that good.

Around five years ago or so, it was announced that the SciFi Channel had picked up the rights for "Forever War" with the intentions of putting together a mini series. This left me with twisted emotions; on one hand I'd love to see my favorite book brought to life, on the other hand it was going to be done by the SciFi channel who's track record for original films was...low to say the least. Oddly enough, nothing more was ever heard of this until now.

Here we are five years later and Ridley Scott has been assigned the task of bringing this to life, and I'm as ecstatic as any fan boy can be! With "Blade Runner" and "Alien" being the text book of what a modern science fiction epic should be, my mind only has grand visions playing through my head! No idea who they'll cast or who would even fit the roles; that's the beauty of the story. It can be just about anybody as the main character William Mandella is nothing more than your average human grunt. There's nothing special about him, he's just the person our story circles about.

For those of you that are big on reading the book before seeing the movie, now is the time to get cracking. Sure, this is still a few years out, but you should get the book out of the way anyways. If you like scifi, you'll like it. Here's the blurb from Wikipedia:

"The Forever War is a 1974 science fiction novel by Joe Haldeman. It won the Nebula Award in 1975 and the Hugo Award in 1976. Both an action-laden and contemplative story of an interstellar war between humanity and the enigmatic Tauran species, it deals with themes like the inhumanity of both war and its attendant bureaucracy, as well as with the results of time dilation space travel which may cause a soldier to return to his home only after centuries have gone by."

For the full scoop on the book, check out the Wikipedia entry or check out Joe Haldeman's official website.