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THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Set Visit Preview and 4 Awesome New Posters!Wolfgang Petersen to Direct OLD MAN’S WAR
by Matt Goldberg Posted:February 23rd, 2011 at 12:46 pm
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Paramount Pictures has picked up the rights to the John Scalzi’s sci-fi novel series Old Man’s War. Deadline reports that Wolfgang Petersen (Poseidon) will direct a script by David Self (Road to Perdition). But that shouldn’t have been their first step. The first step should’ve been to cast Gary Oldman.
The story centers on a 75-year-old man who chooses to have his memories and personality implanted onto a genetically enhanced body. The trade-off is that he has to work as a soldier and protect human colonists on a distant planet. However, he’s injured during a battle and rescued by a special-forces soldier that strongly reminds him of his dead wife. Convinced that the soldier is his wife, he abandons his unit and does anything to be with her. That last part is where I think the story gets boring. I would much rather follow the adventures of a group of young space marines who do nothing but offer people butterscotch candies and complain about loud music.
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I read the first book in my quest to find great military science fiction, and liked it so much that I quickly read its three sequels, which were also really good. Scalzi is great at setting up complex political situations that have widespread impact on the world in which the series takes place, not to mention coming up with great concepts like the whole ‘old man in a young man’s body’ thing (to be clear, the entire army is made up of former old fogies).
As for the movie, I can see why studio execs would think Petersen is a good fit, but I’m not convinced. Given that this is 2010, it will most likely turn out to be just another generic sci-fi action movie anyway. It’s a shame–three of the four books in the series were nominated for the Hugo; they deserve better.
Oh, and I loved the Gary Oldman joke.