Neill Blomkamp Directing Sci-Fi Thriller The Gone World

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District 9 and Elysium filmmaker Neill Blomkamp revealed to his fans that he is ready to begin work on his next feature film project for 20th Century Fox – an adaptation of the science fiction novel The Gone World. Blomkamp was first reported to be attached to the project back in 2015.

Based on the novel by Thomas Sweterlitsch, The Gone World is a “time travel procedural” described as Inception meets True Detective (the title sounds a little more like a certain Gillian Flynn book adapted by David Fincher). The plot follows a special agent named Shannon Moss as she investigates the murder of a Navy SEAL’s family and discovers that the SEAL was aboard a spaceship that disappeared into a time-warping dimension called “Deep Time.” Moss herself travels forward in time to help solve the mystery and discovers that the whole of humanity is headed toward an unspeakable calamity.

The Gone World novel is set to be released in early 2018 but, as he revealed to fans in a tweet, Neill Blomkamp already has his hands on it so he can begin work on the adaptation:

The Gone World will be Blomkamp’s first film since 2015’s Chappie, a movie that proved to be a box office disappointment coming on the heels of the director’s cult hit debut District 9 and successful (if not particularly well-reviewed) follow up Elysium starring Matt Damon. Blomkamp was previously attached to Fox’s Alien franchise after releasing some interesting concept art for an Aliens sequel that would have significantly altered the series’ timeline, but lost his bid to take over the ship when Ridley Scott decided to push forward with Alien: Covenant.

When Blomkamp fans hear the words “science fiction” and “new project” what they really want to hear is that Fox has decided to reverse course and let the director have Alien after all, but it doesn’t appear that is in the cards (even though the studio is reportedly reassessing the Alien franchise’s future after Covenant underperformed financially). Perhaps Blomkamp could resurrect the Alien franchise, but all things being equal, he might be better off tackling a non-franchise property like The Gone World that won’t have a producer like Scott looking over his shoulder. The plot description makes this sound like a perfect story for Blomkamp to relaunch his feature career, after things went off the rails with Chappie.

While Blomkamp’s followers endure what is sure to be a long wait for The Gone World, they can continue sampling the filmmaker’s unique and imaginative approach to sci-fi via his Oates Studio project. Blomkamp’s last short film Zygote, a nod to John Carpenter’s The Thing, features Dakota Fanning being hunted down by a creature in an Arctic mining site.

http://screenrant.com/neill-blomkamp...ld-book-movie/