Lionsgate has landed the rights to Time and Again, a sci-fi romance novel from late author Jack Finney which has been sought after for some time. The illustrated novel from the author of “The Body Snatcher” centers on Simon Morley, an illustrator living in Manhattan who volunteers for a military experiment that sends him back in time to 1882. When he falls for a woman in the 19th century, Si (as he’s often referred to) must choose between two lovers in two very different time periods. Lionsgate has tapped Doug Liman (Mr. and Mrs. Smith) to direct; Liman will also producer with Hypnotic partner, Dave Bartis. Hit the jump for more from Time and Again.
Variety reports that
Lionsgate has finally secured the rights to Time and Again, a property that Robert Redford attempted to adapt in the mid-1990s. The novel also saw tries at a network mini-series and various feature iterations. Finney wrote a sequel titled “From Time to Time,” but never saw it published as it was released one year after his death in 1996. Liman, who previously directed Jumper, will next direct the sci-fi slanted All You Need is Kill, starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt.
Here’s the book description from Jack Finney’s Time and Again (via Amazon):
"Sleep. And when you awake everything you know of the twentieth century will be gone from your mind. Tonight is January 21, 1882. There are no such things as automobiles, no planes, computers, television. 'Nuclear' appears in no dictionary. You have never heard the name Richard Nixon."
Did illustrator Si Morley really step out of his twentieth-century apartment one night -- right into the winter of 1882? The U.S. Government believed it, especially when Si returned with a portfolio of brand-new sketches and tintype photos of a world that no longer existed -- or did it?