20 Things You Didn't Know About Arrival

Tinseltown has seen a ton of films struggle in development hell for years or even decades in some cases, and Arrival was no different. Just like any other high-concept sci-fi tale, Ted Chiang’s novel was considered unfilmable due to the unconventional way the Heptapods express themselves and the tale's cerebral and meticulous nature.

Eventually, it was greenlit and screenwriter Eric Heisserer began working on it, but as a spec script. This meant that he would not get paid until Chiang gave his go-ahead on the script’s quality, and this was a daunting task as the screenwriter went through numerous drafts before having his work approved and securing studio funding.

It did not help that the film took a total of six years from being greenlit to the final edit, Fortunately, Chiang was impressed by the adaptation and the onscreen depiction of interstellar linguistics was a critical darling and box office hit.