Ridley Scott and Steven Zaillian conspire to pull Wool over your eyes with a new sci-fi project

Wool book coverAfter what has been called “a fierce bidding war,” 20th Century Fox has acquired the rights to recent E-book sensation WOOL by Hugh Howey. And when I say “E-book sensation,” I mean that in a mere six months it picked up more than 600 five-star reviews and sold more than 140,000 copies. As for what WOOL is, exactly? “Wool is a high-concept novel set in a stark future; the air outside is no longer breathable, so the last community on Earth lives underground in an enormous silo. Survival is everything, and some will do anything to ensure it.”

Ridley Scott and writer Steven Zaillian are set to spearhead development of the project, via their Scott Free and Film Rites production companies respectively.

Here’s an equally vague plot description provided by the author: They live beneath the earth in a prison of their own making. There is a view of the outside world, a spoiled and rotten world, their forefathers left behind. But this view fades over time, ruined by the toxic airs that kill any who brave them.

So they leave it to the criminals, those who break the rules, and who are sent to cleaning. Why do they do it, these people condemned to death? Sheriff Holston has always wondered. Now he is about to find out.

Source: Deadline, Good Reads

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