Ron Howard has directed everything from biopics to blockbusters, from romantic comedies to dramas, but he’s never tackled hard sci-fi. In fact he’s never really glanced against the genre at all, but for his first real go of it, he’s picked one helluva book to adapt.
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Deadline reports that Howard will direct an adaptation of Neal Stephenson‘s door stop, “Seveneves.” The novel from the celebrated author, sees Earth and its inhabitants preparing for a cataclysmic event, with the narrative then jumping forward 5000 years (!), and seeing the relatives of the survivors — 3 billion strong, and divided into seven races — returning to their greatly changed home. Here’s the book synopsis:
A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space.
But the complexities and unpredictability of human nature coupled with unforeseen challenges and dangers threaten the intrepid pioneers, until only a handful of survivors remain . . .
Five thousand years later, their progeny—seven distinct races now three billion strong—embark on yet another audacious journey into the unknown . . . to an alien world utterly transformed by cataclysm and time: Earth.
The project will bring together the team behind “Apollo 13” — Howard, his bud and producer Brian Grazer, and screenwriter Bill Broyles — which seems like a good fit. It’ll be interesting to see how they condense a narrative that spreads over 800 pages to a feature length film. And it’ll also be interesting to see if this movie ever happens at all — Stephenson’s terrific “Snow Crash” has been languishing in development for years now. But it sounds like some very smart sci-fi, so it’s definitely one to keep an eye on.
