A few years ago, boardgame properties were all the rage, and now self-published e-books are the new subjects of bidding wars. Earlier this summer, Fox scooped up the rights to Hugh Howey’s self-published and post-apocalyptic “Wool” with Ridley Scott and Steve Zaillian — under their respective production companies — teaming up to shepherd the film into production. Now it looks like they have a director in the form of “The Disappearance of Alice Creed” helmer J. Blakeson.
“Wool” is set on a decimated Earth and follows the remains of humanity living in an enormous silo. Vulture is reporting that Blakeson is in negotiations to take the reins on the project, though it’s not specified who would actually write the film as the young British director is only in talks for the directorial position. Blakeson, however, is a hyphenate filmmaker — he wrote his directorial debut — so it’s not unfeasible that he would at least take one pass at the material.
It’s been over three years since Blakeson’s feature-length debut at TIFF, but in that time he's been making the rounds in Hollywood, attached to helm "The Imitation Game" (even though Warner Bros. let it go), and he's got the Bradley Cooper-starring crime drama "Bad Blood And Trouble" aiming to shoot in the second half of 2013. And he was even on the shortlist for "Dawn Of The Planet Of Apes." So it’s good to see the promising director continue to land work, especially something as potentially high-profile as “Wool.” It’s going to be a long while until the film enters production, so in the meantime you can catch up with the source material on Amazon.
