In brief: Hot off his starring role in Neill Blomkamp’s latest sci-fier Elysium, Matt Damon is set to head back into space under the possible direction of Ridley Scott in The Martian.
Whilst it was first reported that the upcoming 20th Century Fox film would be directed by the film’s scribe, Drew Goddard (Cabin in the Woods) he later had to abandon ship due to schedule conflicts with his directing duties on Sony’s The Sinister Six. Ridley Scott is now said to be in talks to consider taking the reins as director.
Based on Andy Weir’s 2011 science fiction novel of the same name, The Martian finds NASA astronaut Mark Watney stranded on Mars when his crew is forced to evacuate due to a dust storm. Impaled by an antenna during the evacuation, Watney must figure out how to keep himself alive long enough to make it back to Earth.
If negotiations are successful, this will be the first Damon/Scott collaboration. In the meantime Scott in currently in post-production with the Moses epic, Gods and Kings whilst we can next see Damon in yet more sci-fi shenanigans in Christopher Nolan‘s Interstellar.
