Sci-fi double feature: Ridley Scott finds a new scribe for The Forever War, and Bungie’s next game Destiny is detailed

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

It seems that today is just a sci-fi kind of day.

First up we have a new development on THE FOREVER WAR, Ridley Scott’s (very) long in the works adaptation of Joe Haldeman’s 1974 novel of the same name.  The last movement on the project was the hiring of screenwriter David Peoples (BLADE RUNNER) to do a pass on the script back in 2010, but the newest development on THE FOREVER WAR comes in the form of scribe D.W. Harper (ALL YOU NEED IS KILL) being brought on to do his own pass. 

Described by Scott himself as “a science-fiction epic, a bit of ‘The Odyssey’ by way of ‘Blade Runner,’ built on a brilliant, disorienting premise,” the plot goes something like this: “The Earth’s leaders have drawn a line in the interstellar sand–despite the fact that the fierce alien enemy they would oppose is inscrutable, unconquerable, and very far away.  A reluctant conscript drafted into an elite Military unit, Private William Mandella has been propelled through space and time to fight in the distant thousand-year conflict; to perform his duties and do whatever it takes to survive the ordeal and return home.  But “home” may be even more terrifying than battle, because, thanks to the time dilation caused by space travel, Mandella is aging months while the Earth he left behind is aging centuries…”

There’s no word yet on where or when Scott would fit THE FOREVER WAR into his schedule – despite wanting to direct it for something like 25 years now, he already has sequels to both PROMETHEUS and BLADE RUNNER in the works (plus a whole bevy of other projects in development besides).  The project certainly sounds fascinating, but at the end of the day all I really care about is that Ridley Scott keeps working.  More as we hear it.

Meanwhile on the video game side of things, concept art and game scenario description have been leaked regarding the next game from Bungie (HALO, HALO 2, HALO 3).  Bungie has since substantiated the leak with their own bit of concept art accompanied by the following description: “Go ahead. Take a peek. It’s alright. We weren’t quite ready, but we will be soon, and we can’t wait to finally show you what we’ve really been up to. Stick around, we haven’t even started yet.”

Titled DESTINY, the game’s story “begins seven hundred years from now in the Last City on Earth, in a Solar System littered with the ruins of man’s Golden Age. A massive, mysterious alien ship hangs overhead like a second Moon. No one knows where it came from or what it’s here for, but only that it’s our protector. Meanwhile, strange, alien monsters creep in from the edge of the universe, determined to take Earth and the Last City. We are young ‘knights’ tasked with defending the remains of humanity, discovering the source of these monsters and – eventually – overcoming it.” Bungie has also confirmed that the alien ship hovering over Earth is called “The Traveler”, and that DESTINY has been crafted with the intention of creating “a universe as deep, tangible and relatable as that of the Star Wars franchise.”  Bungie co-founder Jason Jones has also elaborated on that idea, saying that DESTINY “is designed for your inner seven year old. We want to make it feel like a mythic adventure.” (via IGN and Bungie)

Sounds good to me.  Sounds REALLY good to me, in fact.  Being both a Playstation owner and a HALO fan I’m of course psyched that DESTINY is going multiplatform, as even with my dwindling time available for video games I can definitely see myself making some room for DESTINY.  But what about you? Check out the concept art below, and strike back below that with your thoughts!