What happened to Ridley Scott's The Forever War?

By FacehuggersScified EditorialsLeave a CommentPublished: July 18, 2017

In 1974, Vietnam War veteran Joe Haldeman wrote The Forever War, a groundbreaking work in the genre of military science fiction. In short, the novel detailed the hardships faced by soldier William Mandella when thrown into interstellar combat. Haldeman's seminal depiction of time dilation, censorship, violence, future shock, and cultural advancement was unlike anything written prior. In fact, Robert Heinlein, the author of Starship Troopers, famously said that The Forever War "may be the best future war story I've ever read!"

Decades later in 2008, director Ridley Scott announced that he would return to science fiction with a film adaptation of The Forever War. Throughout the years, Scott repeatedly cited James Cameron's Avatar as inspiration and that a script was in development with Channing Tatum attached. Yet with the releases of Prometheus, The Martian and Alien: Covenant, it seemed that Ridley Scott had lost interest.

In December of 2016, screenwriter Jon Spaihts remarked that a script was still very much underway. But since then, there have been no further updates.

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of speaking to Joe Haldeman myself about "The Forever War film. He told me that he himself was not too sure of the production's progress, though Warner Bros. did pay him a good sum for the rights. (He also mentioned that the wheat fields in Alien: Covenant looked strikingly like those in his novel!)