Some folks expressed surprise back in March when we reported that Paramount would be acquiring the filming rights to The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester’s classic science fiction novel that has long been considered “unfilmable.” But now that we live in a world in which similarly “unfilmable” books like Olive Kitteridge are winning every damn Emmy under the sun, the studio has decided to go ahead and make this one, too. Now, Deadline reports Paramount has hired David DiGilio, writer of the upcoming sequel to Tron: Legacy, to pen the script, which makes total sense, given that he’s clearly well-acquainted with corralling wildly implausible sci-fi stories into existence.
The Stars My Destination follows the story of Gully Foyle, a 25th-century merchant who is attacked by unknown forces, only to find himself stranded and “abandoned to die by people working for the same company, then imprisoned when it comes out that unknown to him he was carrying a secret and highly valuable metal necessary for an ongoing war effort. Upon escape, he sets about settling scores as he learns who set him along that course, and why.” And yes, it’s basically a proto-cyberpunk retelling of The Count Of Monte Cristo, but with cool shit like teleportation and space lasers and whatnot. Also, the studio has hired Kong: Skull Island director Jordan Vogt-Roberts to helm this particular outer space adventure, which isn’t an indication of anything beyond the fact that studio executives probably have a hard time telling the difference between giant apes and giant space—though to be fair, that may have just been a typo in the pitch document.