Even though it happened all the way back in June, the exit of Phil Lord and Chris Miller from Lucasfilm's Han Solo spin-off movie remains the most stunningly strange movie-related news of 2017. Directors enter and leave projects all the time, but rarely do filmmakers get fired from movies when they're halfway through production. I remember seeing the news on Twitter during a long car ride and subsequently watching Twitter implode, as the backlash against Lucasfilm and Kathleen Kennedy was swift and merciless. Lord and Miller are two of the most talented young directors working today, and it was truly tragic to see them get swept into the studio machine only for the whole endeavor to be a total waste. We haven't seen a new film from the duo since 2014, and at this rate, we likely won't see another until 2019 or 2020 at the earliest. But nonetheless, the two action/comedy experts have found their bounce-back movie after the Han Solo fiasco, and it sounds like an enticing possibility.
In an exclusive report, Deadline confirms that Lord and Miller will be heading to 20th Century Fox for their next movie, which will be an adaptation of Andy Weir's Artemis. Weir also wrote The Martian (which was turned into an Oscar-nominated Fox production), and while Artemis is not even published yet, the studio snagged the rights in May with the hopes of striking gold again. So what is this thing all about? Well, back in May, Nerdist released some exclusive details on the plot of the book. The story follows Jazz, an aimless young woman living on Artemis, the first small town to be housed on the moon. As she attempts to make the best of her tediously idyllic life, Jazz ends up getting caught up in a crime conspiracy with implications for all of Artemis.
Additionally, Deadline reveals that Simon Kinberg and Aditya Sood are signed on as producers, with Lord and Miller working in coordination with Fox to develop the script. All in all, this sounds like a match made in heaven- The Martian was one of the best films of 2015, and I will watch literally anything that Lord and Miller do. They are innovative directors with a thrilling sense of kinetic energy, and I'm glad to see that they're getting the chance to take on an ambitious, big-budget project. Fox has proven to be the kind of studio that will allow smart directors to take big risks (see: Logan, the whole Planet of the Apes series), so I think that the two filmmakers are in good hands here.
As it's still in the early stages of development, Artemis does not have a release date, but look for more details soon.
Sources: Deadline, Nerdist
Images: IMDB/Sony/Fox
Comments
Post a Comment