Scott goes to 'War' (VAR)

By Nancy Tartaglione-Vialatte

Ridley Scott is returning to sci-fi with �The Forever War.� Fox 2000 has acquired rights to Joe Haldeman�s 1974 novel with the film adaptation to be produced by Scott Free. Scott had intended to follow his back-to-back classics �Blade Runner� and �Alien� with �War� but rights complications delayed those plans for more than 20 years, notes Variety.

Vince Gerardis and Ralph Vicinanza will executive produce. Their company, Created By, reps Haldeman and spent the last decade trying to get back the rights.

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

The book is about a soldier who battles an enemy in deep space for just a few months, only to return home to a planet he doesn�t recognize some 20 years later, Scott said.

"The Forever War" rights were acquired right after publication by Richard Edlund, who spent $400,000 of his own money and hoped to make the book his directorial debut. But Edlund never got the project off the ground. After a Sci Fi Channel miniseries stalled, Scott became interested again, according to Variety, and Edlund was ready to make a deal.

Scott Free and Fox 2000�s Elizabeth Gabler and Rodney Ferrell will hire a writer immediately.

Scott next plans to direct "Nottingham," starring Russell Crowe and has several other projects on deck including the thriller "Child 44," for which Richard Price just penned a script, and "Gucci," about the squabbles within the fashion family that led to the murder of Maurizio Gucci.