Another sci-fi epic in the pipeline: Wolfgang Petersen up for Old Man’s War

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Man, these ambitiously gigantic sci-fi epics are a dime a dozen these days.

Wolfgang Petersen (ENEMY MINE, POSEIDON) has signed on to direct OLD MAN’S WAR for Paramount Pictures, which just acquired screen rights to the John Scalzi novel. David Self (THE HAUNTING, ROAD TO PERDITION) is adapting, which Scott Stuber (next year’s sci-fi extravaganza BATTLESHIP) will produce.

Here’s the synopsis of the book, which in short is about an old man who trades in his body for a younger one so that he may fight an interstellar war. Pretty cool.

John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife’s grave. Then he joined the army.

he good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce—and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. So: we fight. To defend Earth, and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding.

Earth itself is a backwater. The bulk of humanity’s resources are in the hands of the Colonial Defense Force. Everybody knows that when you reach retirement age, you can join the CDF. They don’t want young people; they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. You’ll be taken off Earth and never allowed to return. You’ll serve two years at the front. And if you survive, you’ll be given a generous homestead stake of your own, on one of our hard-won colony planets.

John Perry is taking that deal. He has only the vaguest idea what to expect. Because the actual fight, light-years from home, is far, far harder than he can imagine—and what he will become is far stranger.

Comes off as sort of a long-winded “Twilight Zone” plot, but I see the potential for emotional drama as well as sci-fi adventure.

For Petersen, this is his latest attempt to mount a large-scale intergalactic epic: In 2008 it was announced he’d become attached to an alien invasion film called UPRISING. We’ve heard squat about that since… He was supposedly bringing Orson Scott Card’s ENDER’S GAME to the big screen years ago, but that never materialized either. (Gavin Hood is now in line to helm.) Let’s see if the man who brought the world THE NEVERENDING STORY can finally stage his outer space masterpiece.

Source: Deadline.com

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Eric Walkuski is a longtime writer, critic, and reporter for JoBlo.com. He's been a contributor for over 15 years, having written dozens of reviews and hundreds of news articles for the site. In addition, he's conducted almost 100 interviews as JoBlo's New York correspondent.