Ridley Scott has mentioned Aldous Huxley's highly regarded dystopian novel
Brave New World many, many times in interviews during the past year - we actually
picked up a story about it ourselves 13 months ago, and now finally an official deal has been put in place to bring this significant science fiction novel to the big screen.
Risky Business Blog say Universal have setup an adaptation of the novel with Ridley Scott and
Leonardo DiCaprio producing, both with an eye on directing and starring respectively.
Apocalypto writer
Farhad Safinia has been hired to adapt. Depending on how quickly he can translate the novel (and it's a complex book, so it might take a while), potentially it could be the next movie for DiCaprio and Scott. Both have made lots of deals for future films (Scott's working on
Robin Hood, DiCaprio on Chris Nolan's
Inception currently) but neither have made a firm deal for anything next - so it could be this. For Scott, who it's believed started becoming obsessed with the novel not long after he turned the equally mind-bending
Phillip K. Dick novel
Blade Runner into a sci-fi classic in 1982, you have to think he will do everything in his power to see this novel make it to the big screen. I'm not at all familiar with
Brave New World, except that it's a widely perceived fact that it's a classic and that I'm a fool for having not read it yet, so I'm going to steal RBB's meat and bones...
Huxley sets his book in a seemingly perfect 26th century world that has achieved harmony by tightly controlling birth, which takes place mainly in laboratories, and outlawing family. The world is populated by a series of five castes, each with its own defined roles. Characters who figure in to the story are Bernard, a lower-caste member, and Lenina, the woman with whom he is infatuated. DiCaprio is would likely play Bernard, who is persecuted when the leaders of the society find his behavior antisocial.
As the novel is well out of copyright, you can read it for free
HERE. The deal shows Ridley Scott's commitment for getting himself back into the science fiction game, and in this world of remakes, reboots, prequels (of which Scott
is threatening to make one himself with a new Alien movie), this kind of deal is a breath of fresh air. Now let's hope it doesn't get lost in the wind, and this one keeps a steady course and actually gets made.