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Bryan Singer Tackling The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress Adaptation For Fox

Keeping one of its most lucrative directors in-house, Fox has set X-Men: Days of Future Past helmer Bryan Singer to tackle an adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's sci-fi classic The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, to be titled Uprising.

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Keeping one of its most lucrative directors in-house, Fox has set X-Men: Days of Future Past helmer Bryan Singer to tackle an adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein’s sci-fi classic The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, to be titled Uprising.

Arrow executive producer Marc Guggenheim has come aboard to adapt the book, which centers on a lunar colony’s revolt against rulers stationed back on Earth, echoing the historical conflict between the United States and the British Empire. It was nominated for the 1966 Nebula Award, honoring the best American writing in fantasy and science fiction, and won the Hugo Award for best science fiction novel in 1967.

Two previous attempts to adapt Heinlein’s novel – one at DreamWorks with a script by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, and another by Phoenix Pictures involving Harry Potter producer David Heyman – failed, with the rights reverting to the author’s estate.

Singer is also attached in a producing capacity, alongside Lloyd Braun and Thor Halvorssen. Executive producers include Andrew Mittman and Jason Taylor.

Heinlein is considered one of the great sci-fi writers, alongside Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick and Arthur C. Clarke. Some adaptations of his works include the 1953 film Project Moonbase, the 1994 TV miniseries Red Planet, the 1994 film The Puppet Masters and, in a take so loose that it may defy the word “adaptation,” 1997’s Starship Troopers.

Though no big-budget adaptations of his books have ever come to fruition, Fox handing the reins over to Singer suggests that it’s hoping to turn The Moon is a Harsh Mistress into a blockbuster property. Should they succeed, the book’s ambitious tale of lunar inhabitants fighting for independence could easily translate to a big-screen trilogy.

Next, though, Singer is handling directorial duties on X-Men: Apocalypse, to star James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence and Oscar Isaac, which will get underway in earnest this April (pre-production is currently taking place). The pic is due to land May 27th next year.