Ridley Scott In Talks To Direct Matt Damon In The Martian

The Martian is a project that’s been floating around for a while now over at 20th Century Fox, with Drew Goddard originally set to take the helm. Due to commitments with Sony’s Sinister Six film, however, the director had to depart, which left the studio searching for a replacement. Now, Heat Vision is telling us that they’re turning to Ridley Scott for the job, as the legendary filmmaker is currently in talks to take over for Goddard.

Based on Andy Weir’s e-book of the same name, The Martian will follow “one of the first people to walk on Mars who becomes stranded and must struggle against insurmountable odds in order to survive.” The screenplay, which was penned by Goddard, will remain in place, and Matt Damon (who was attached not too long ago) is said to still be on board as well. So, the only thing changing here is the director.

While Goddard would have been great for this kind of story, I think that Scott is an excellent choice as well (after all, he certainly knows his way around space). Insiders are describing The Martian as being similar to Cast Away and Apollo 13, and it will be interesting to see what the director can do with a survival film like this, since he hasn’t really done anything quite like it before.

For a full summary of The Martian, courtesy of Amazon, see below:

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.

Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old “human error” are much more likely to kill him first.

But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?