Roland Emmerich To Direct Sci-Fi Thriller 'Dark Matter'

There are some directors who will get work in Hollywood no matter what, and even though he’s coming off a string of flops and disappointments — “White House Down,” “Stonewall,” “Independence Day: Resurgence” — Roland Emmerich is one of those people. And Sony is ready to give him the keys to another movie.

READ MORE: The 20 Worst Films Of 2016

The filmmaker is in early talks to direct the sci-fi thriller “Dark Matter,” which is based on the book by “Wayward Pines” author Blake Crouch. The ambitious project will follow a physics professor who is abducted and dropped into a parallel universe, and must find his way back. Here’s the book synopsis:

“Are you happy with your life?”

Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious.

Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.

Before a man Jason’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.”

In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.

Is it this world or the other that’s the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could’ve imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.

Dark Matter is a brilliantly plotted tale that is at once sweeping and intimate, mind-bendingly strange and profoundly human—a relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we’ll go to claim the lives we dream of.

Sounds appropriately high concept, and Sony has more confidence in Emmerich than I do at this point. But hey, maybe he’ll turn it around for “Dark Matter.” [Deadline]