Roland Emmerich to direct an adaptation of Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

While I don't like a lot of Roland Emmerich's films, the ones I do like I love. INDEPENDENCE DAY is f*cking awesome (and it still holds up, I'd say), STARGATE is a fun adventure, and I have a soft spot for his GODZILLA remake (though I'm aware I'm the only one). However, his duds by far outweigh his classics, and his films no longer feel like events (even if DAY AFTER TOMORROW or 2012 were awful movies, they at least felt like epics). And with the resounding thud of the INDEPENDENCE DAY sequel, people have been wondering what his next project will be.

Well, it seems he's in early talks to direct an adaptation of the bestselling novel DARK MATTER from author Blake Crouch (the writer of the WAYWARD PINES trilogy). Here's is the logline, according to Deadline:

Jason Dessen, a quantum physicist, once had a brilliant research career ahead of him. But after a girlfriend’s unexpected pregnancy and the birth of a son, this future was derailed. Now a professor at a small Chicago college with a warm and loving family life, the physicist is abducted into a world in which his quantum many-worlds theory has become a fully realized technology for inter-dimensional transfer. In the parallel world, he did not marry his girlfriend and they never had a son. He is determined to get back to his other life, but nefarious powers in the alternate reality conspire to stop him from revealing the criminal lengths they have gone to create the world-hopping technology.

Huh. Honestly, this sounds really interesting. I like the fact that the plot revolves around choice – like the one between either having a loving family and being a famous world-renowned celebrity – but also the idea of inter-dimensional chase scenes sounds pretty cool too. It also seems a bit heady, which is not Emmerich's strong suit. Let's hope that he can do the story justice.